Film Accounting Glossary
Box rental
What is a box rental?
Also called box rate, or equipment rental allowance.
A box rental is a weekly payment to a crew member for the use of their personally owned tools, kit, or supplies on the production.
It is compensation for equipment rather than labor, so when it is properly documented it is not wages and is reported on a 1099 rather than in the W-2 box. Inflated or undocumented box rentals are a standard audit target, so productions ask for an inventory list to support the rate.
Example
A key grip on $350 a week box rental for ten weeks receives $3,500, supported by an inventory list of the tools supplied. It is reported on a 1099 rather than as wages and carries no fringes, which is exactly why the inventory has to exist.
Figures are illustrative, chosen to show the mechanics rather than to quote market rates.
Where you'll see it
Set in the deal memo, then budgeted on a separate box rental line within the department. A standing audit target when amounts look untethered to real kit.
Common mistake
Paying a box rental with no inventory list behind it. Undocumented, it looks like disguised wages, and that is exactly how an auditor will treat it.
Related questions
- Is a box rental taxable income?
- It is reportable, but as equipment rental rather than wages when properly documented, which is why it appears on a 1099 rather than in the W-2 wage box.
- Does box rental carry fringes?
- No, because it is not wages. That is precisely why the amount has to be defensible against a real inventory of tools and supplies the crew member provides.