Film and TV incentive in Slovakia
Slovakia runs the Slovak Audiovisual Fund cash rebate: a cash rebate worth 33% (14% on foreign crew fees). A payment on approved local spend, usually claimed after delivery or in stages. What matters is the queue: most cash rebates run from an annual budget.
The numbers
- Scheme
- Slovak Audiovisual Fund cash rebate
- Type
- Cash rebate
- Headline rate
- 33% (14% on foreign crew fees)
- Minimum local spend
- €100,000 for a feature, €300,000 for a series of up to 26 episodes, €50,000 for documentary or animation, spent within three years of registration
- Cap per project
- No cap on eligible costs
- Funding
- Budget-limited Paid from the Slovak Audiovisual Fund budget; register before 1 August to be counted in the following year's budget
- Paid
- After all eligible costs are paid and the final balance sheet and auditor's report are delivered
- Foreign spend qualifies
- No
- Currency
- EUR
What this means for the cashflow
There is an annual pot and a queue. Applying early in the year matters, and a full pot can push a production to the next round. The production carries the gap until the money arrives, and that is a financing question rather than a budget line.
When it pays: After all eligible costs are paid and the final balance sheet and auditor's report are delivered.
The detail
Registration costs €1,000 and is valid for three years, and only spend after the registration certificate counts. The cultural test needs 24 of 48 points and is filed in Slovak. Fees to foreign freelancers who stay tax resident at home get 14% instead of 33% and are capped at 10% of approved eligible costs, so a heavily imported crew lowers the average. The Fund checks a complete claim within 30 days and can ask for another 30 days of documents.
What you have to submit
Model agreed-upon-procedures report on eligible costs (PDF), Slovak Audiovisual Fund. The Fund prescribes the wording of this ISRS 4400 auditor report, and the detailed list of eligible expenditure in the prescribed table form is an inseparable part of it. The report must be in Slovak, and registration and the payment request themselves are filed through the Fund's system at registracia.avf.sk.
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, Slovakia sits at number 11 of the 32 European schemes we track (33%). 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
Other cash rebate schemes
- Netherlands Up to 35%
- Germany 30%
- Portugal 30% / 25% (large track); 30% to 40% (medium track)
- Malta 30% to 40%
- Hungary 30% (up to 37.5% with foreign costs)
- Czech Republic 25% (35% animation and VFX)
- Poland 30%
- Iceland 25% (35% for large productions)
Shooting there
We list 60 places to shoot in Slovakia and 35 studios, production companies and post houses, each checked on its own site.
Source
Figures taken from Slovak Film Commission (Slovak Audiovisual Fund) 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