Lisbon, April 1, 2025 (Lusa) - The official start date for submitting income tax (IRS) returns begins on Tuesday, 1 April, and ends on 30 June. This is the time for taxpayers to make the final accounting of the tax on their 2024 income.
In order to calculate the tax, the withholdings made over the past year are relevant, as are the various types of expenses that are taken into account for the purposes of deducting them from the tax bill and also the taxpayer's personal and family profile.
This annual tax return will reflect the various changes that the tax code was subject to in 2024, first through the State Budget of that year (OE2024), then through the changes approved in parliament during the summer of last year.
At stake are reductions in the rates levied on the brackets, which initially (through the State Budget for 2024) covered the first five brackets, plus an additional reduction (of between 0.25 and 1.5 percentage points) in the first six brackets.
In 2024, the limits of the brackets were also updated by 3%, and there were also changes that updated the existence minimum (tax-free amount) and the specific deduction (after several years ‘frozen’ at €4,104).
Most of these changes to the tax code have been reflected in the withholding tax tables, with each taxpayer's monthly deduction amount lower than in previous years.
The reduction in the amount of tax withheld each month throughout 2024 (which, in practice, is nothing more than an advance payment that workers and pensioners make to avoid having to pay the full amount of the IRS due when they submit their annual tax return) will now impact the amount of the refund or the tax that remains to be paid.
According to Paula Franco, a member of the Order of Certified Accountants (OCC), the figures presented for some of the taxpayers who tried on Monday to access the Finance Portal and simulate their income tax indicate that this year, they should expect a smaller refund.
The final tax accounts also include the various types of expenses that taxpayers had in 2024, such as health, education, rent or house loan, general family expenses, nursing homes, or alimony.
This year, a new range (which can go up to a maximum of €200) has been added to this range, resulting from part of the salary of domestic service workers.
As in previous years, the average time taken to process refunds is expected to fall this year from the almost 13 days it took last year for those with automatic IRS (the general average was around 24 days), according to what the Secretary of State for Tax Affairs, Cláudia Reis Duarte, told Lusa.
When submitting the declaration, she also warned of the importance of confirming or indicating the IBAN for the refund, as failure to do so could delay the tax return.
The three months for submitting the personal income tax return apply to all income categories, i.e., dependent work (category A), self-employment (category B), pensions (category H), property, and capital income.
Those who are covered by the automatic IRS benefit from a fully completed declaration (which each person must check and see if it is correct before accepting and submitting it) and can also know exactly what the final result will be, i.e., whether they will have tax to pay or a refund to receive and, if so, how much to submit together or separately.
Workers who meet the requirements of the IRS Joven in force in 2024 must expressly adhere to this regime in their tax return, which means refusing the automatic IRS if they are covered.
Last year, more than six million tax returns were submitted, with almost 500,000 submitted on the first day.
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