Lisbon, July 18, 2025 (Lusa) - The government expects to publish the new income tax withholding tax tables on Monday, so that taxpayers will feel the reduction in this tax approved on Wednesday in August.
Prime Minister Luís Montenegro announced the measure during the state of the nation debate in response to a question from PSD deputy leader Hugo Carneiro about when the Portuguese would feel the effect of the income tax reduction.
“As far as income tax is concerned, we expect to publish the new withholding tax tables next Monday, so that from next August, people will be able to feel this new reduction in tax rates,” said Montenegro.
In his last speech in the debate, the prime minister had only four minutes (granted by the PSD and CDS-PP benches, as he had already used up all the government’s time) to answer 27 questions from the various benches, opting to give a “final assessment” in which he highlighted the situation of public services, in addition to tax matters.
“Today [Thursday], there is more peace in public schools than there was a year ago (...) Today, while we acknowledge the ongoing challenges within our Health Service, the response capacity is greater than it was a year ago. And we expect that in a year it will be even greater,” he said.
On health, which was at the centre of several of the questions put to him, Montenegro stressed that, in just over ten years, the amount allocated to health in the State Budget has more than doubled.
“Both individuals, in their savings, and the state are channelling increasing shares of their income to health services, and this public spending now exceeds the levels of 10 years ago,” he said.
The prime minister argued that it is necessary to “rationalise public spending further, producing more results with less expenditure”.
“And that is what we are doing, taking advantage of all the functionalities, investing in equipment, reprogramming the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP),” he stressed.
On the other hand, he stressed that for the country to have good public services, “it needs to grow economically”.
“There needs to be effective wealth creation. Contrary to what has been said here, I have consistently advocated for fighting poverty from the outset. But I repeat what I have said on other occasions: we fight poverty by creating wealth,” he said.
Several questions awaited answers, including that of Carlos Guimarães Pinto, from IL, who asked the prime minister how he will choose the future governor of the Bank of Portugal, just a few days before Mário Centeno ends his first term (the law allows for a second term).
“Will you do the same as António Costa and choose someone close to your party whom you can control, or will you launch an open selection process to attract the most qualified person?” he asked.
At this stage of the debate, the leader of Chega, André Ventura, took the opportunity to tell the PS that the shadow government he promised would be “ten times better” than Montenegro’s government and reaffirmed that he has “a principle of understanding” with the prime minister on the nationality law, which lawmakers will vote on in September.
The PS parliamentary leader, Eurico Brilhante Dias, considered that Luís Montenegro had denied this in the debate, with Ventura responding that the prime minister had referred to the absence of any permanent agreement.
In his responses, Montenegro focused on other issues.
SMA/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
