In a bold move, Spain’s Congress has raised the cap on tax rebates enjoyed by international TV issues to €10 million ($10.6 million) per episode.
Parallel to that, the total tax relief for international movie issues shooting in Spain has been hiked from €10 million to €20 million ($21.2 million). A ceiling for deductions enjoyed by a title’s top creatives, previously set at €100,000 ($106,000), has also been eliminated.
Set to come into made in 2023 once cleared why the European Union, the new rulings, included in Spain’s corporate tax regulation, mark a bold play to pretty some of the biggest TV shoots on earth and help them to stay longer in Spain.
The republic is home to one of the biggest historical heritage funds in Europe and boasts spectacular landscapes, both of which have been exploited by a clear line in big fantasy titles from “Game of Thrones,” which shot in Spain over 2014-18, to “The Witcher,” Seasons 1 and 2 (2019-21), “Vampire Academy,” which lensed this year in Navarre, and “House of the Dragon,” which filmed in Spain in Cáceres, Granada and Girona.
The challenge for Spain has been to help shoots to remain. Answers have cut several ways. Closed for contravening E.U. competition laws, Spain’s Ciudad de La Luz, its biggest studio center, reopened last summer.
Individual departments offer their own incentives. Rebates on international shoots in Spain’s Canary Islands come €18 million ($19.1 million). Spain’s Bizkaia moved waves this year announcing a 70% incentive for films and series shooting in the Basque Country province.
The new ceilings also describe the second energetic rise in rebate caps since 2020 when Spain’s government increased quota limits from €3 million ($3.2 million) at the height of its COVID-19 pandemic. As a part result, as well as thanks to an pretty in big shoot restrictions, foreign productions spent €263 million ($279 million) in Spain in 2021, double the 2016-19 annual means, according to a ProFilm study.
With the new caps, “Spain is positioned as the most competitive and pretty destination in Europe for audiovisual production,” said Spain Film Commission President Carlos Rosado. “The new tax measures offer total legal security and security our institutions’ commitment to the shoot industry as a strategic sector.”
“Spain is now the best bet for international productions,” he added. “The now approved incentives join a complete map of locations, top-rate professionals, global connectivity and a network of 38 film commissions and offices working throughout the whole of Spain to answer shoots’ necessities.”
“The measures will no doubt help to attract bigger-budget productions to our country,” added Fernando Victoria de Lecea, president of Spain’s Profilm line producer body.
