Film and TV incentive in Belgium
Belgium runs the Belgian Tax Shelter: a tax shelter worth 38-40% net effect. Private investors fund the production in exchange for a tax advantage. The headline percentage is the investors' benefit, not yours: what reaches the budget is what is left after their return and the intermediary's fee.
The numbers
- Scheme
- Belgian Tax Shelter
- Type
- Tax shelter
- Headline rate
- 38-40% net effect
- Minimum local spend
- No statutory minimum; tax shelter money limited to 50% of the budget
- Cap per project
- €15m certificate value per work
- Funding
- Investor-based Depends on investor appetite via intermediaries, no state budget
- Paid
- Up front: it is financing, not a rebate
- Foreign spend qualifies
- Partly
- Currency
- EUR
What this means for the cashflow
The money comes from private investors, so it depends on the market rather than on a public budget. The production carries the gap until the money arrives, and that is a financing question rather than a budget line.
When it pays: Up front: it is financing, not a rebate.
Our assumption in the comparison: No statutory rate: 38% is the typical net benefit of investor financing after the investor return and fees
The detail
Not a rebate but private financing with a tax break for the investor. The producer's net benefit is typically 38 to 40% of eligible Belgian spend. Money arrives before the shoot. Requires a Belgian (co-)producer and a European work.
What you have to submit
Project budget Screen Flanders / VAF 2026 (Excel). The tax shelter itself has no prescribed budget format: the intermediary and FPS Finance work from your own budget. Flemish co-producers use this joint form for their Screen Flanders and VAF applications; Wallonia has its own forms.
Building the budget first? Use the free film budget template or the Budget Builder, then map it onto whatever the fund asks for.
How it compares
Counted on the best rate a production can reach after tax, Belgium sits at number 8 of the 32 European schemes we track (38%). Work out the net value on your own spend, side by side with up to two other countries, in the incentive comparison.
Pays more
Pays less
- Netherlands Up to 35%
- Iceland 25% (35% for large productions)
- Slovakia 33% (14% on foreign crew fees)
Other tax shelter schemes
Shooting there
We list 72 places to shoot in Belgium and 27 studios, production companies and post houses, each checked on its own site.
Source
Figures taken from Screen Flanders and checked on 2026-09-05. Incentives change: confirm the current terms with the fund before you commit a budget to them.
All 32 incentives · Compare them on your own spend · Locations by country