Increased Incentives for International Film Making Solidifies Spain as One of the Most Attractive Destinations in Europe

Emiliano de Pablos
25 January 2023
Fiction
Game of Thrones. Extremadura Film Commision

Game of Thrones. Extremadura Film Commision

"The measures will serve to attract projects of a greater magnitude to our country" - Fernando Victoria de Lecea, ProFilm

Approved by the Congress of Deputies last December 27, the new tax incentives for audiovisual filming have placed Spain among the most attractive destinations in Europe.

Under the new regulations, international TV series shot in Spain will qualify for a deduction limit of €10 million per episode, while for international films the tax reduction limit increases from €10 to €20 million per project. At the same time, the spending limit of €100,000 per person on creative personnel has been eliminated.

In the case of the Canary Islands, due to their status as an island and outermost territory, the incentive increases to €18 million per episode for TV series; films have access to a discount of up to €36 million per title.

The aim of this initiative is both to attract major international film shoots to Spain and to encourage them to stay longer in the country.

“The measures will undoubtedly serve to attract projects of a greater magnitude to our country,” says ProFilm's president, producer Fernando Victoria de Lecea.

The application of the regulatory change, included in a reform of Corporate Income Tax Law, is awaiting the European Commission's pronouncement on its compatibility with EU law.

According to the president of ProFilm, now the objective of this association, which includes 90% of the companies that develop audiovisual projects with other countries in Spain, "is to continue collaborating with the Government so that, when the approved changes are implemented, they are carried out in the simplest and most efficient way possible both for the Tax Authority and for sector professionals and to help ensure legal certainty”.

With a limit of 30% for the first million of the deduction base and 25% on the excess over this amount – which in the Canary Islands is 50-45% – the incentives are already among the most attractive in Europe, compared, for example, to France, which offers 30% with a ceiling of €30 million, or the United Kingdom, with 25% of the admissible expenditure, provided that it does not exceed 80% of the production budget.

In addition, since 2023, the Basque province of Bizkaia offers tax credits of up to 70% of the expenditure with no maximum limit for national and international filming that takes place in its territory.

The new regulations mark the second major increase in production spending reimbursement limits since 2020, when the Spanish government raised the €3 million quota ceiling in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due in part to that initiative and also to the relaxation of restrictions, international productions spent €263 million in Spain in 2021, double the 2016-19 annual average, according to a study by ProFilm.

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