Incentives · Canada vs. the world

Canada
vs. Hungary

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

⚠ Hungary rates are UNVERIFIED placeholders. No page publishes foreign rates as fact until a docs/tax/world-hungary.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.

🇭🇺 Hungary
27.5%
≈ C$4.6M · 30% headline

Cash timing: Cash rebate, post-financing — paid quickly by international standards. At least 80% of direct costs must be Hungarian. HUF 70bn allocated for 2026; EU approval runs to 2030..

Where Hungary is strong
  • Very competitive all-in cost base before the rebate even applies
  • Effectively 37.5% by adding up to 7.5% of non-Hungarian costs to the base
  • Budapest doubles convincingly for much of continental Europe
  • Established large-format stage capacity
  • Registration cap removed in 2026; funding secured to 2030
Where it costs you
  • NFI deducts a 2.5% administration fee
  • The 80% Hungarian-cost test constrains how you structure spend
  • Language and administrative overhead for a first-time production
  • Long travel from North America for cast and studio executives
  • Crew depth concentrated almost entirely in Budapest
The verdict

Canada is ahead by 4.0 points on rate — and the rate is the smaller half of it.

Canada wins when

Your executives need to visit the set regularly, or you need North American looks and an English-first crew.

Hungary wins when

Cost per shooting day is the dominant constraint and the story is set in Europe. The pre-rebate cost base is the real advantage — the rebate compounds it.

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

Deciding between these two?

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

One email, a real reply, no list. Want to say more? Use the full form.