Payment of taxes by direct debit in Portugal

Portuguese taxpayers will be able to pay some taxes through direct debit, a functionality that was recently launched. According to the Minister of Finance, Mr. Mário Centeno, tax payment authorization by direct debit “will avoid fines and associated costs due to lack of tax payments within legal deadlines”. According to Mr. Centeno, the introduction of this measure will allow taxpayers to save almost three million euros in administrative costs.

The minister gave as example the case of the Road Tax, whose deadline is associated with the month of the car registration, noting that the amount of fines for non-payment of the IUC was around 54 million euros in 2017. In the tax administration’s portal it is already possible to choose the payment by direct debit of several taxes: Personal Income Tax (and payments by account related to this tax), Corporate Tax, Road Tax and Municipal Property Tax. For this purpose, taxpayer must choose whether he/she wants the direct debit to be recurrent or an "one-off payment”; tax(es) covered; and definition of the maximum amount and period authorized.

The direct debit will be available also at tax offices and also in the ATM machines.