How Togra handles Section 487A

# How Togra handles Section 487A

The product-side companion to Section 487A — the unscripted credit: where each step of the unscripted production tax credit lives in Togra. For the statutory detail read that entry; for how it differs from S481 read the comparison; this page is the workflow.

1. The shape of it

S487A is the younger, stricter sibling: a 20% credit on eligible expenditure up to €15m, claimed in a two-stage interim → final certificate process under the Unscripted Production Regulations 2025 (commenced 23 December 2025). Togra's spine for it is Airgead → Tax credits → S487A readiness — an eligibility-first tracker, because with S487A the disqualifiers do most of the work.

2. Eligibility — where most of the logic lives

The readiness tracker evaluates the project against the regime's gates:

• Programme category. Unscripted routes here (eight eligible categories); live events, news and sport are permanently outside, and video-sharing-platform content is excluded. Scripted work routes to S481 instead — and Togra's regime detection enforces one project, one credit: the tracker fires an explicit S481 conflict detected warning if the project is simultaneously tracked on the other credit (the two are statutorily mutually exclusive).
• Documentary series by series number. Series 1 of a documentary series is S481 territory; Series 2 onwards is S487A — Togra branches on the project's series number, not just its type.
• Spend thresholds. The €125k minimum eligible expenditure / €250k minimum total cost gates, with on-screen services excluded from eligible spend.
• The 50% state-aid auto-disqualifier. This is the sharpest difference from S481: public funding above 50% disqualifies the project outright — there is no mitigation route (no low-budget or difficult-film derogation exists for S487A). The state-aid engine computes the cumulation (intra-EU only — post-Brexit UK funding is outside the pool), and when a project crosses the line Togra treats it as fully disqualified: the claim is blocked and the skills workflow is suppressed entirely — a disqualified project has no skills obligations, so you won't see deficit counts or blockers for it.

A claw-back trigger panel on the tracker watches the conditions that would unwind a paid credit.

3. The application — interim and final

Unlike S481's single certificate, S487A runs two stages, and Togra ships a pack for each: the interim application bundle and the final claim bundle (Iarratas → DCCS), both assembled Tab A–M-style from project data. The packs carry the regime's own Culture Test — 50% overall with a minimum of 5 points in Section A, across the four sections (A Content · B Creativity · C Cluster · D Concomitant) — and the participant-tier table that scales skills-development participant numbers to budget (the 1/2/3/5/7/9/11/13/15/18 ladder). The Skills Development Plan routes by budget: under €1.5m it's reviewed by DCCS, over €1.5m by Screen Ireland.

4. The money

The same shared credit engine that powers S481 computes the S487A figure regime-aware — 20% rate, €15m ceiling — so the budget tool, finance plan and packs all agree. Eligible spend is tagged at budget-line level (with the on-screen-services exclusion) and the qualifying rollup tracks actuals as production proceeds.

5. Skills — lighter than S481, same machinery

The skills suite serves both credits from one participants register, with the S487A differences applied:

• Tab F generates on Screen Ireland's V9.4 XLSX template (the S487A variant), pre-filled — including the county of production base field and, where shoot locations sit outside the 65 km Dublin GPO radius, the regional-eligibility note.
• Two-to-three engagement meetings logged on the SI engagement log (S481 requires three).
• Participant categories, Individual Learning Plans, mandatory-course tracking and the QA Compliance report work exactly as on S481 — see the Skills Development Plan and the SDO role.

And per the disqualification rule above: if the project is state-aid disqualified, none of this surfaces.

6. Entities and accounts

S487A claims run through the Producer Company — no DAC is required for unscripted work (when a DAC is required), and Cuntasaíocht's entity policy books S487A production cost in the Producer Company's ledger accordingly. That also means an unscripted slate stays lighter in Cúram: no per-project DAC filings to diarise.

7. Where things live