Disney is removing original content from its streaming platforms to cut spending on residual payments to writers and actors. The company is also claiming the purge will result in $1.5 billion in losses — which could amount to a substantial tax break.
This whole tax write-off thing definitely needs an overhaul imo.
For one thing as the article mentions it does seem extremely hard to value the worth of media assets like this. And I wouldn’t trust the companies looking for a write-off to give an average estimate, considering they have a clear conflict of interest.
But more importantly those assets still exist and it really is just a matter of giving or taking away access. I think if a society is giving these companies tax write-offs, it should get control over them in return.
However I am still not sure how one would best make them available after that, while still making sure creatives are still getting their fair share. Which would be a reason to not just straight up make them available for free.
Maybe there should be some sort of auction where anyone (except the company looking to write them off) can bid on them? And then possibly even make the write-off based on that?