Portugal creates 30% cash refund to lure high-budget international productions

Portugal has unveiled a 30% cash refund incentive programme to attract higher-budget film and TV productions to film in the country.

It is designed to complement the existing cash rebate of 25%-30%, called the Tourism and Cinema Support Fund (FATC). The two cannot be combined.

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

It will work as an incentive of 30% on the first €2m ($2.15m) of qualifying Portuguese production expenditure. It will support productions that carry out at least €2.5m ($2.69m) 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 ($3.23m) per episode.

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 ($542,950) for fiction works and €200,000 ($217,180) for documentaries and post production work with a cap of €1.5m ($1.62m) 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.