27-05-2025
'Scéal' tax credit scheme announced for Irish movies with budget of €20m
Irish movies with a budget of up to €20 million have been given an uplift today with the announcement of the 'Scéal' tax credit scheme by Minister for Arts and Culture, Patrick O'Donovan.
This new enhanced tax credit specifically targeting mid-to-lower budget films, provides an additional 8% uplift tax relief to Ireland's existing 32% tax incentive for film and television, Section 481.
Speaking at the launch, Minister O'Donovan said that this is a positive change to Section 481 which will "benefit the Irish film industry, Irish film workers in senior creative roles and Irish cinemas".
The 'Scéal' strand of Section 481 provides an additional tax relief to production companies producing small to medium sized feature films or animated feature films.
Additionally, the uplift of 8% will be available to feature films with a budget of less than €20 million where at least one of the key creative roles of film director, screenwriter, or composer, amongst other key creative roles, is a national of, or ordinarily resident, in Ireland or the EEA.
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said at the launch that "Scéal Uplift is a fantastic addition to our already globally recognised Section 481 film tax credit."
The uplift will be of "great benefit to our smaller indigenous productions, the type that portray Irish stories on screen and project them all over the world," he added.
The feature film must be intended for exhibition at a commercial cinema in Ireland for at least five days.
At the launch, Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland also announced details of a new Irish-language slate development fund, 'Smaointe', that will support Irish production companies as they develop a slate of creative projects in the Irish language.
'Smaointe' will support Irish-language narrative projects across film, television and animation, and companies specialising in Irish-language production.
Désirée Finnegan, Chief Executive of Screen Ireland, also welcomed the roll out of the 'Scéal' and 'Smaointe' schemes, saying that they would "create a new opportunity for Irish filmmakers and screen artists."
Members of the Irish film sector have been campaigning for an extension of the 481 tax credit scheme.
In Screen Ireland's most recent analysis of the Irish film production industry covering 2021-2023, published in January, the report found that the audio visual sector is worth €1 billion to Ireland.
The report noted that the Section 481 tax credit was "hugely significant for the industry as two thirds of production spend was supported by this tax relief."
