Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit (OBPTC)

Program Description

The Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit (OBPTC) is a refundable provincial tax credit of 30% of eligible Ontario expenditures, capped at $30,000 per qualifying literary work. Administered jointly by Ontario Creates (which issues Certificates of Eligibility) and the CRA (which processes the credit on corporate tax returns), the OBPTC covers pre-press costs (editing, author advances), digital version preparation, and a portion of Ontario printing costs. It is distinct from the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit and has been untethered from the Ontario Film and Television Production Credit since 2024. Eligible publishers must be Canadian-controlled corporations operating primarily in Ontario that have published at least two books in the previous year.

Eligibility Requirements

• Canadian-controlled private corporation (CCPC) operating primarily in Ontario
• Must file an Ontario corporate tax return
• Must allocate over 50% of taxable income to Ontario
• Must have published at least two books in the previous year
• Qualifying literary work must be written by eligible Canadian authors (ordinarily resident in Canada, citizen or permanent resident)
• 90% or more of content must be new and previously unpublished
• Minimum 48 printed pages (except children's books)
• Text-to-picture ratio of 65% or more (except children's books)
• Eligible categories: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, biography, and children's variants