Why 2026 will be a pivotal year

If 2024–2025 were about rebuilding and re-baselining after historic strikes and rapid tech adoption, 2026 is shaping up to be a year of renegotiation, standard-setting, and operational tightening. For payroll teams working in film, TV, and streaming, several forces converge: major guild contract expirations, maturing AI provisions, evolving federal rules that touch how you classify, compensate, and report workers, and continued pressure to move faster with better audit trails.

Three themes will define the year: 1) contract timing and contingency planning, 2) AI’s impact on rates, residual triggers, and performer protections, and 3) compliance automation across overtime, multi-state tax, and e-filing.

Contract calendars drive the production cashflow calendar

Multiple cornerstone CBAs hit their end dates in 2026, which means negotiations will be active across the year and may affect budgeting, minimums, and working-condition calculations on greenlights spanning 2025–2027. Expect payroll set-ups to include baked-in contingencies for mid-season rate changes, retroactive wage adjustments, and effects bargaining.

• Writers Guild (WGA) MBA: The 2023 MBA runs through May 1, 2026. Production that straddles this date should plan for potential minimum and residual adjustments in late spring or early summer 2026.
• Directors Guild (DGA) Basic Agreement: Current term runs July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2026. Rate tables already contemplate step-ups; budgeting for post-June starts should include provisional increases and a reserve for new economic terms.
• SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical: The 2023 deal expires June 30, 2026. Background AI protections and consent/compensation provisions are in place now; successors could sharpen definitions and enforcement.

What this means for payroll:
Treat 2026 like a bridge year. For projects that film or post across expiration dates, build forecasts with two sets of labor assumptions and map the inflection points to your weekly payroll cycles. If a successor agreement lands mid-season, expect retro pay, benefit true-ups, and updated penalties/minimums that require re-rating earlier weeks.

AI moves from “new clause” to “standard practice”

AI-related provisions entered the big contracts in 2023 and 2024. In 2026, they’ll feel routine: consent workflows for digital replicas, additional compensation for certain uses, and clearer notice and record-keeping obligations. For payroll, the practical effects are:

• More line items tied to AI-related premiums or reuse.
• Tighter coordination with casting, post, and legal so that usage triggers become payable events with documentation.
• Additional narrative in edit approvals to justify subject wages for AI-related compensation, which benefit funds may review.

The action item for payroll leads: incorporate AI flags into start paperwork, timecards, and edit reports so “trigger events” become automatically visible, priced, and auditable.

Overtime rules and classifications: watch the threshold landscape

Federal overtime rules saw major movement in 2024–2025, including a two-step raise to the white-collar salary threshold and subsequent litigation. However the lawsuits ultimately resolve, this category will stay hot. Payroll teams should maintain the system capability to pivot quickly between thresholds and ensure that any “exempt” classifications in production offices are still genuinely exempt under duties tests, not just pay level.

• The U.S. Department of Labor’s 2024 final rule raised the standard salary level, with implementation milestones in July 2024 and January 2025; litigation has followed, so teams should track the current effective threshold for each jurisdiction where production offices sit.

What this means for payroll:
If you rely on salaried-exempt classifications for certain production-office roles, configure your onboarding to capture duties detail, and keep a reversible switch in your payroll system to move those employees to overtime-eligible if thresholds or rulings shift. For union crafts, daily/weekly OT rules still govern, but back-office compliance risk often sits with non-represented coordinators and assistants.

Reporting and e-file: 10-return threshold is the new normal

Electronic filing isn’t a “nice to have” anymore. Since tax year 2023 filings, employers who file a combined total of 10 or more information returns must e-file them. That threshold applies to W-2s and common 1099s, which sweeps nearly every production company and loan-out aggregator into mandatory e-filing.

What this means for payroll:
If you still have legacy manual steps at year-end, 2026 is the time to finish the migration. Centralize TIN/SSN validation and address hygiene during onboarding, standardize digital consent for electronic statements, and confirm your vendor’s IRIS/SSA integrations are tested well before January.

Multi-state, multi-local complexity keeps rising

Even when principal photography is in Los Angeles, weekly pickups, remote prep, and post can create withholding in other jurisdictions. Expect 2026 audits to scrutinize work-location reporting, especially for hybrid or remote pre-production teams. Payroll should continue to:

• Capture work state and work locality per day.
• Auto-apply reciprocal agreements and local taxes where applicable.
• Maintain documented rationales for nexus determinations in your production file.

Budgeting for benefit cost growth

MPIPHP, IATSE National plans, and guild funds have raised rates consistently in recent years. While the exact 2026 increases for IANBF are not yet public, it’s prudent to budget for trending composite-rate growth. Carry a contingency line for benefit escalators on long schedules and make sure edit approvals re-rate subject wages correctly when a new plan year begins mid-show.

Practical preparations: your 2026 payroll readiness checklist

1. Map the contract calendar to your slate. Identify shows that cross May–June 2026, tag them for retro-pay risk, and decide now how you’ll hold reserves.
2. Build AI triggers into your workflow. Add checkboxes for digital replicas, generative alterations, and reuse to start forms and timecards. Teach teams to document consent artifacts and usage notes that payroll can price.
3. Tune your exemption controls. For production-office roles, document duties tests, store them alongside offer letters, and set up a “flip to non-exempt” playbook if thresholds or rulings change.
4. Finish e-file modernization. Verify e-file eligibility for every entity, test IRIS/SSA pipelines, and eliminate paper exceptions. The 10-return e-file rule is here to stay.
5. Tighten multi-state sourcing. Ensure daily location capture is in your digital timecard tool and tie it to automated state/local withholding logic.
6. Pre-approve retro mechanics. Configure your payroll system for automatic re-ratings, benefit true-ups, and arrears when new CBAs land.
7. Strengthen audit narratives. Add short, standardized explanations to edits for unusual premiums (AI-related pay, complex rest penalties, golden hours) so benefit funds and union auditors see a clean trail.
8. Communicate earlier with vendors. Get 2026 rate cards, contribution tables, and edit formats into your teams’ hands before first prep week.

Content and training you can deploy now

• A contract-expiration explainer for production executives that highlights WGA, DGA, and SAG-AFTRA term dates and what happens to payroll if a successor agreement introduces retroactive changes.
• An AI-pay quick guide that defines common events that generate premiums or additional compensation and shows where those appear on a timecard or edit.
• An e-file readiness checklist that covers TIN validation, address cleansing, electronic consent capture, and error handling for W-2c/1099 corrections.
• An overtime decision tree for production-office roles that clarifies duties tests, salary thresholds, and when to classify as non-exempt.

The bottom line

2026 won’t blindside well-prepared payroll teams. If you link the contract calendar to your production calendar, wire AI triggers into everyday paperwork, stay nimble on overtime classifications, and complete your e-file and multi-state automation, you’ll protect budgets, reduce rework, and give studios and payroll companies cleaner, faster closes. The goal is simple: make compliance the default and surprises the exception.