Decree-Law no. 49_2025, of March 27th
Approves tax simplification measures, namely amending the Tax Benefits Statute, the Tax Procedure and Process Code and other legislative acts.
Promoting the competitiveness of the Portuguese economy, by reducing the costs of complying with tax obligations, greatly simplifying taxation, strengthening tax stability and reformulating tax justice, is an important objective enshrined in the Program of the XXIV Constitutional Government.
To this end, at the Council of Ministers meeting on January 16, 2025, the government approved the Agenda for Tax Simplification, which is an ongoing process. At the time, 30 measures were announced as part of a broader agenda, with the aim of better serving taxpayers, people and companies by reducing context costs, increasing transparency and understanding of tax obligations and improving the quality of the services provided by the Tax and Customs Authority (AT). To this end, the purpose of this decree-law is to approve the legislative changes that are essential for the swift implementation of the various measures enshrined in the aforementioned Agenda.
In particular, among the measures aimed at reducing contextual costs, the elimination of declaratory redundancies stands out, namely those contained in the Simplified Business Information (IES) form, already eliminating Annexes Q and O, relating respectively to the Annual Stamp Duty Declaration and the Recapitulative Client Statement (VAT). Also eliminated are the
reporting obligations of resident taxpayers in relation to savings income in the form of interest paid in another European Union member state or in certain third countries and associated territories
or dependent on a member state. To the same end, it is planned that, in the case of taxable persons with no taxable transactions, the periodic VAT return will be submitted automatically, and VAT records will also be dematerialized for taxable persons who do not keep organized accounts.
On the other hand, in order to increase exports and simplify customs and tax formalities for postal consignments and express consignments of goods with a value of less than €1,000, the submission of the customs export declaration is waived in order to obtain the respective exit certification, with exemption from VAT and consequent recognition of the right to deduct the tax paid, and a simplified export certificate issued by the AT is provided for this purpose.
Excessive or disproportionate obligations are also eliminated, such as withholding tax when it is a small amount, and it is waived when it is less than €25.
At the same time, there are several measures to ensure greater transparency and understanding of tax obligations. First and foremost, the harmonization of various deadlines for complying with declaratory obligations, particularly with regard to personal income tax, which have been moved to the end of February. Similarly, the validity periods for certificates of regularized contributory and tax status (commonly known as certificates of non-debt to social security and the Tax and Customs Authority) have been harmonized.
In order to improve the quality of the services provided, the obligation to hold a regularization meeting during a tax inspection has been eliminated, without prejudice to the taxpayer's right to do so.
This decree-law introduces more than 20 measures, 12 of which correspond to measures previously announced in the Agenda for Tax Simplification, with the remaining measures also included in the same Agenda aimed at simplifying procedures (such as recognizing impairments on non-current assets or changing the quarterly or monthly VAT periods) or simplifying reporting obligations (such as extending the exemption from filing a declaration of commencement of activity when there is only one taxable transaction, extending the deadline for filing the Model 10 declaration or exempting the submission of physical plans).
In shaping these measures and in the work carried out within the scope of the Agenda for Tax Simplification, the important contribution of 18 entities should be noted, namely social partners and relevant organizations in the tax sector.
