Lisbon, July 3, 2025 (Lusa) - The government approved a bill on Thursday to amend the tax benefit for companies that increase salaries, removing the salary range criterion that was previously approved in parliament.
According to the minister of cabinet affairs, a bill was approved today that "amends the tax benefits statute and seeks to give impetus to and make viable the support mechanism for wage increases".
At issue is a rule included in the State Budget, which provides for an exemption from corporate income tax for companies that increase workers' salaries above a certain percentage, an idea that the government believes "should be preserved and was included in the tripartite Social Dialogue agreement".
However, "in the specialised version of the SB, this agreement was distorted and transformed into an inoperable mechanism," António Leitão Amaro pointed out, since "the companies that were supposed to be entitled to benefit from part of the increase granted in corporate income tax didn't take advantage of it because of a condition put forward in parliament, which was the so-called salary range."
"The aim is to preserve the minimum appreciation thresholds for both the minimum wage and the average wage," he emphasised. Still, as this mechanism was “shaken” and "made almost irrelevant because of the rule", the government wants to "bring the social dialogue agreement into Portuguese law in which the salary range criterion can be removed".
The government had already attempted to remove this condition from the benefit in the 2025 state budget, a proposal that was rejected. It reiterated the issue in February, before the government's fall.
At the time, the Minister of Labour signalled that the government wanted to "scrupulously comply" with what had been agreed at the Wage Concertation.
Two pieces of legislation were also approved as part of the reform of public finances, aimed at "programme-based budgeting" and "permanent and regular public spending exercises".
Concerning programme-based budgeting, the aim is for budget management to be based on "public policy programmes", based on "goals, priorities and results", to increase the "rationality and quality of the budget process", explained the minister of cabinet affairs.
Concerning the law that regulates "the permanent review of public spending", the minister assured that it will ensure “savings” and thus achieve "more balanced accounts" and "lower the tax burden".
The government also approved the law transposing the European directive on the cancellation of customer loans between financial institutions.
According to the minister of cabinet affairs, António Leitão Amaro, the law aims to "preserve consumer rights in the case of credit transfers" between financial institutions.
He also said that the legislation regulates the central credit registry. No further information was provided.
This directive pertains to the sale of customer loans between companies, such as when a bank sells a customer's delinquent debt to an investment fund. The EU directive aims to strengthen consumer protection in these cases.
MES/ADB // ADB.
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