ATLANTA, GA – Georgia, which has been boosting its film industry with tax breaks, and beginning in 2018 will employ a special tax break to encourage the growth of its music industry.

For years, Georgia has been losing artists to states with larger and more supportive infrastructures for the music industry, according to Peter Stathopoulos, a partner at Top 100 Firm Bennett Thrasher in Atlanta, Accounting Today says.

But Georgia lawmakers believe that this is past history, if the recently-passed Georgia Music Investment Act does what they hope.

“Georgia has a long and vibrant history in the music industry,” Stathopoulos noted. “We’re home to artists like Ray Charles, the Allman Brothers, REM, the B-52s, Ludacris, Travis Tritt and the Zac Brown Band. Although we have a great music tradition, in recent years we’ve been losing ground to Nashville, Los Angeles and New York. This will stop or reverse the trend.”

Stathopoulos was on the team responsible for drafting regulations to implement the new music tax credits law – the Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act.

“The new law, a cousin of the film tax credit law, was passed with the hope that it would produce similar results in the music industry,” Stathopoulos said.

Peter Stathopoulos is a Partner and leads Bennett Thrasher’s State and Local Tax practice. Stathopoulos has been practicing in the area of state and local taxation and economic development incentives since 1993, according to Bennett Thrasher official webpage.

Stathopoulos has extensive experience in helping clients reduce their effective state tax rates through multistate tax planning and in resolving state tax controversies from the audit level through litigation in state trial and appellate courts.

Mr. Stathopoulos has been a guest professor at the University of Georgia Terry School of Business and the Georgia State University School of Law. Mr. Stathopoulos is a Georgia tax correspondent for State Tax Today, published by Tax Analysts, and has published several articles in The State & Local Tax Lawyer, published by the American Bar Association and the Georgetown University Law Center.

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