Incentives · Canada vs. the world

Canada
vs. Australia

Modelled on a $12M USD limited series. Canada's best province against Australia's realistic effective rate — not its headline.

⚠ Australia rates are UNVERIFIED placeholders. No page publishes foreign rates as fact until a docs/tax/world-australia.md file exists with statute links and an access date.

🇨🇦 Canada — best province (Manitoba)
31.5%
≈ C$5.2M · refundable

Cash timing: filed with the corporate return, assessed and paid 12–24 months after wrap. Borrowable against, not sellable.

🇦🇺 Australia
30.0%
≈ C$5.0M · 30% headline

Cash timing: Refundable offset, claimed post-completion — a long wait. Uncapped. Minimum A$20m for a film, or A$1.5m per hour average for television..

Where Australia is strong
  • 30% of QAPE, uncapped, refundable — raised from 16.5% in July 2023
  • Stacks with the PDV Offset: 30% on production spend and 30% on post/VFX
  • Southern-hemisphere seasons — summer while Canada is frozen
  • English-language crew and no permit friction for US/UK talent
Where it costs you
  • High minimum spend shuts out anything under A$20m
  • Travel time and cost from North America is punishing
  • Time-zone offset makes daily studio communication hard
  • Credit arrives late in the cycle
The verdict

Canada is ahead by 1.5 points on rate — and the rate is the smaller half of it.

Canada wins when

Anything where a Los Angeles executive needs to be on set the same day, and anything below the minimum spend.

Australia wins when

You need summer light in the northern winter, you clear the A$20m threshold, or you can stack the Location and PDV offsets across a shoot-plus-post package.

Model your budget → Compare provinces
Other jurisdictions
🇺🇸 Georgia, USA🇬🇧 United Kingdom🇮🇪 Ireland🇭🇺 Hungary🇳🇿 New Zealand

Deciding between these two?

We will run both against your actual budget and say which wins, including when it is not Canada.

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