Portugal offers 30% cash refund to lure high-budget global productions

It will complement the existing cash rebate aimed at small and medium-sized productions, while the new incentive will aim at productions with higher budgets.

5 APR 2024

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The Portugal Film Commission has announced a 30% cash refund incentive programme to attract higher-budget film and TV productions to film in the country. The incentive is designed to complement the existing cash rebate, called the Tourism and Cinema Support Fund (FATC). However, both incentives cannot be combined.

It will work as an incentive of 30% on the first €2m ($2.2m) of qualifying Portuguese production expenditure, supporting productions that carry out at least €2.5m ($2.7m) of eligible expenses in Portugal. It is administered on a “first come, first served” basis, with a cap of €6m ($6.47m) for feature films and per season, or €3m ($3.2m) per episode.

“The cash rebate will be for small and medium-sized productions and the cash refund for productions with higher budgets,” said Ana Marques, executive director of the Portugal Film Commission.

The existing FATC is a cash rebate at 25% - 30% of qualifying expenditure dependent on a cultural test score. Some qualifying expenses can be refunded at a rate of 40%. This rebate has a minimum qualifying expenditure of €500,000 for fiction works and €200,000 for documentaries and post production work with a cap of €1.5m per project.

Applications for this year’s cash rebate incentive program opened on April 1, 2024 while the window for the cash refund applications will open soon. They are both managed by the Instituto do Cinema e Audiovisual.

Recent productions to film in Portugal include HBO’s “House Of The Dragon” and 2024’s “Damsel” for Netflix, starring Millie Bobbie Brown.