Film and TV incentive in Canary Islands (Spain)
Canary Islands (Spain) runs the Art. 36.2 with Canary Islands uplift (REF): a tax credit worth 50% / 45%. A credit against tax, claimed through a return. It is reliable, but it arrives after the filing rather than during the shoot, and in some countries it is itself taxable.
The numbers
- Scheme
- Art. 36.2 with Canary Islands uplift (REF)
- Type
- Tax credit
- Headline rate
- 50% / 45%
- Minimum local spend
- €1m Canary Islands spend (€200k for animation and post)
- Cap per project
- No cap
- Funding
- Entitlement Statutory deduction, no annual budget
- Paid
- Through the tax position of a Canary Islands service company
- Foreign spend qualifies
- No
- Currency
- EUR
Higher rates and tiers
- 50% on the first EUR 1,000,000 of qualifying spend
- 45% above that
What this means for the cashflow
If the production qualifies, the money follows. No queue, no annual pot. The production carries the gap until the money arrives, and that is a financing question rather than a budget line.
When it pays: Through the tax position of a Canary Islands service company.
The detail
50% on the first €1m, 45% above that (54% on the first €1m when Canary spend exceeds €1.8m). Requires a production or service company resident in the Canary Islands and a regional certificate.
What you have to submit
List of qualifying expenditure (PDF), Tenerife Film Commission. No budget format is prescribed; this list shows which cost lines count as Canary spend. The ICAA cultural certificate and the Canary Islands certificate go with the claim.
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, Canary Islands (Spain) sits at number 1 of the 32 European schemes we track (50%). Work out the net value on your own spend, side by side with up to two other countries, in the incentive comparison.
Pays less
Other tax credit schemes
Shooting there
We list 234 places to shoot in Spain and 51 studios, production companies and post houses, each checked on its own site.
Source
Figures taken from Tenerife Film Commission 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