Before creating Contrarian, Founder Brett Thornquest (CPA, Registered Tax Agent) was a senior executive within the Moneypenny Group. His career has seen Brett develop a unique combination of experience in the entertainment industry, initially working as an on-set production accountant.

The primary focus of Contrarian is the provision of tax, advisory and compliance services to production companies, lenders and financiers and their specific projects seeking to access Australia’s various federal and state government incentives e.g. the Producer, Location and PDV Offsets. Contrarian has extensive experience submitting project claims across a mix of US studio, local Australian and international feature co-productions and TV series and mini-series.

Services include

• SPV Entity set up and structure/local company director attachment
• Local Tax Identification Number, Goods & Services Tax (GST) registrations
• Initial incentives estimate based on a breakdown of budget/vendor contracts
• Provisional Application advice and facilitation
• Offset/Rebate financing and cashflow
• Formal professional opinions in favour of the financier/lender and/or completion guarantor detailing the predicted qualifying spend, the value of the incentive
• Tax Withholding Variations and Clearances for visiting actors, ATL personnel
• Final application advice and facilitation to achieve certification with the relevant government authorities
• Applicant tax return (where applicable) to claim the incentive and receipt of the proceeds on behalf of the lender and production