Incentives · Canada vs. the world

Canada
vs. Ireland

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

🇨🇦 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.

🇮🇪 Ireland
32.0%
≈ C$5.3M · 32% headline

Cash timing: Refundable. Either 100% on delivery, or 90% at financial closing with the balance and any Scéal uplift on completion.. The lower of eligible expenditure, 80% of total production cost, or €125m per project..

Where Ireland is strong
  • 32% on a broad base, refundable, and it arrives close to whole
  • Scéal uplift takes it to 40% for feature films under €20m qualifying spend, with an Irish or EEA national in a key creative role and a theatrical target
  • Post-production and VFX qualify at the standard rate — Screen Ireland does not publish a separate VFX uplift
  • Landscape Canada genuinely cannot double
  • EU access and treaty co-production structures
Where it costs you
  • Crew depth is thin — two large productions can saturate the market
  • Limited purpose-built stage inventory
  • Accommodation and travel costs spike in season
The verdict

Ireland is ahead by 0.5 points on rate. Here is what that number leaves out.

Canada wins when

You need to staff more than one large production at a time, or you need serious stage square footage.

Ireland wins when

You need Irish or Northern-European landscape, you are structuring an EU co-production, or you qualify for one of the 40% uplifts.

Model your budget → Compare provinces
Other jurisdictions
🇺🇸 Georgia, USA🇬🇧 United Kingdom🇭🇺 Hungary🇦🇺 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.

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