Irish Film Scene Fights Back with Tax Incentives

 It’s been a year for competitive tax incentives, as both states and countries seek to compete with the “classic” choices and get themselves a share of the entertainment industry’s budgets and spending. Now Ireland is joining the fray. Brandon Blake, entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A., analyzes this latest competitor on the tax incentive scene.


                                                                        Brandon Blake

Boosting Homegrown Talent

Dublin will introduce a 40% tax incentive for its 2025 budget. Interestingly, this incentive is aimed at mid-range and lower-budget films with a maximum budget of $22M (€20M) and will need a significant management presence from Irish talent. This would boost the existing Section 481 film tax incentive by roughly 8%.


The broader Irish film scene has been buzzing of late, with Small Things Like These featured on the Berlinale and Kneecap taking home the Berlin Film Festival’s Audience Award and Sundance awards. It’s currently set to be Ireland’s 2025 Oscars entry for Best International Feature. There were also a record-setting five Irish films at Cannes this year.

Unscripted Focus

Plans to offer a 20% tax incentive for unscripted projects also exist, but this will have to wait for EU approval. Screen Ireland, the Irish national film agency, will also boost its budget to $38M (€34M).


Unlike some of the locations we’ve seen develop strong tax incentive programs this year, tax incentives for film productions have come under focus recently as a way to boost local economies, create jobs, and attract further entertainment investment. These incentives often lead to increased spending and long-term economic growth in host regions.


Ireland already has something of a production boom underway for visiting productions, driven partly by last year’s boost to the regular 32% rebate, which allows up to $138M of local spend to be recouped. No doubt this new development will incentivize the Irish production scene even further.


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