Portugal VAT Calculator (IVA) — 2026 Rates

Portugal is a single VAT jurisdiction with three rate schedules. Artigo 18.º of the Código do IVA fixes the mainland rates at 6%, 13% and 23%, and — as amended by Lei n.º 12/2022 — expressly allows the Legislative Assemblies of the Azores and Madeira to set lower rates for operations located in their regions and for imports cleared through their customs offices. Both have used that power, and they have used it differently.

The Azorean schedule is roughly 30% below the mainland's across the board — the maximum discount the enabling legislation permits. Madeira's is a much shallower discount at the top of the scale but matches the Azores at the bottom.

Which rate applies to a cross-territory sale

The determining factor is where the operation is located, not where the seller is registered. Decreto-Lei n.º 347/85, which used to govern this, was revoked by Lei n.º 12/2022 and its rules folded into Artigo 6.º CIVA (nos. 16 and 17):

• Goods — the rate is set by the place where dispatch or transport to the customer begins, or where the goods are made available. Stock shipped out of Funchal carries Madeiran rates wherever the buyer is.
• B2B services — the general rule follows the customer's seat or fixed establishment. A consultancy invoice to an Azorean company carries the 16% Azorean rate even if every hour was worked in Porto.
• B2C services — generally follow the supplier's establishment, subject to the usual special rules for immovable property, transport, catering and electronically supplied services.

Businesses that trade between the mainland and the islands therefore have to run multiple rate sets in their billing software and map each customer or delivery point to the right territory. Certified Portuguese software handles this natively; generic foreign invoicing tools frequently do not.

The mainland bands are populated by two annexes to the VAT Code: Anexo I lists everything taxed at 6%, Anexo II everything taxed at 13%, and anything absent from both falls to 23% by default.

Two Portuguese quirks worth knowing

Restaurants. Meals sit at 13% whether eaten in, taken away or delivered — Portugal deliberately removed the dine-in/takeaway distinction. Drinks are carved out and stay at 23%: alcohol, soft drinks, juices, nectars and carbonated waters. A venue that is exclusively takeaway, with no seating, is a food retailer and charges 23%. Where an invoice mixes rates it must state the base for each; if it does not, the highest rate on the document applies to the entire amount.

Household electricity. Under Lei n.º 38/2024, in force since 1 January 2025, the reduced 6% rate applies to the first 200 kWh consumed in each 30-day period on contracts with a contracted power of up to 6.9 kVA, rising to 300 kWh for households of five or more. Consumption above that band is taxed at 23%, so a single Portuguese electricity bill routinely carries two IVA rates. Low-pressure natural gas up to 12,000 m³ a year gets the same treatment.

New for 2026: the State Budget moved olive oil production activities from 23% to 6% on the mainland (4% in Madeira and the Azores) with effect from 1 January 2026, extended the IVA exemptions on agricultural inputs such as fertilisers, seed and animal feed to 31 December 2026, and introduces group-level IVA balance consolidation from 1 July 2026.

Portugal built the strictest invoice-fiscalisation regime in Western Europe, and it did so a decade before most of its neighbours. An invoice is not merely a document here — it is a record the AT expects to be able to reconstruct independently.

The four layers

• Certified billing software. Mandatory once turnover exceeds €50,000, and also for any business issuing more than 1,000 invoices a year. The software must hold an AT certification number, print it on every document, and chain each document to the previous one with a digital signature so that gaps and back-dating are detectable.
• QR code — mandatory on every invoice since 1 January 2022, encoding the issuer's NIF, the customer's NIF, the document type and number, the taxable base and tax per rate, and the ATCUD, to the AT's published specification.
• ATCUD — mandatory since 1 January 2023. It takes the form ValidationCode-SequentialNumber. The validation code is requested from the AT in advance, per document series, through the Portal das Finanças or the series-communication web service. No series registration, no valid invoice.
• SAF-T (PT) billing file — a standardised XML export of every document issued, submitted monthly by the 5th of the following month. This is what allows the AT to pre-populate the e-fatura portal and to reconcile your periodic return against your actual invoices.

Where the 2026 dates land

• 1 January 2026 — B2G e-invoicing in the CIUS-PT format, mandatory for large companies since 2021, extends to micro, small and medium-sized suppliers to the public sector.
• Through 31 December 2026 — a PDF invoice issued by certified software carrying a valid ATCUD and QR code continues to be accepted as an electronic invoice without a qualified electronic signature (QES).
• 1 January 2027 — the QES requirement for PDF invoices takes effect, having been deferred by the 2026 State Budget.
• 2028 — first mandatory submission of the accounting SAF-T file, covering 2027 data. The billing SAF-T is unaffected and remains due monthly.

If you sell into Portugal from abroad and register locally, assume these obligations apply to you. Portugal has consistently extended its fiscalisation rules to non-resident registered taxpayers rather than exempting them.

Portugal separates registration from charging. Everyone who trades files a declaração de início de atividade with the AT before the first supply; whether you then add IVA to your invoices depends on the Artigo 53.º regime.

The €15,000 small-business exemption (regime de isenção)

• Available where turnover in Portugal in the previous calendar year did not exceed €15,000. The threshold rose in steps — €12,500, then €13,500, then €14,500 — and reached €15,000 for 2025, where it remains for 2026.
• You invoice without IVA and file no periodic return, but you cannot deduct the IVA on your own purchases.
• Every invoice must state "IVA – regime de isenção (artigo 53.º do CIVA)".
• Exceed the threshold by more than 25% during the year — €18,750 — and you fall into the normal regime immediately, charging IVA from the invoice that breaks the limit, with 15 business days to notify the AT.
• Since July 2025 keeping organised accounts no longer blocks access to the regime, and importing goods no longer disqualifies you.
• Non-established businesses have no threshold and register from the first taxable supply in Portugal.

Periodic returns (declaração periódica)

Businesses below the monthly threshold may opt into monthly filing, which is worth doing if you are habitually in a repayment position. Recapitulative statements for intra-EU supplies are filed separately, and the annual IES/Declaração Anual carries the VAT annexes.

Cash accounting (regime de IVA de caixa)

Decreto-Lei n.º 34/2025 raised the entry threshold from €500,000 to €2,000,000 of turnover with effect from 1 July 2025, opening the scheme to a far wider slice of Portuguese business. Under it, IVA becomes chargeable when you are actually paid — or at the latest in the 12th month after the invoice date — and you likewise deduct input IVA only once you have paid your supplier. The option is exercised in October and takes effect the following January, with a minimum stay of two years, and invoices must be issued in a dedicated series bearing the words "IVA – regime de caixa".

Which mechanism you use depends on who your customer is and where the goods start.

B2C distance selling — the €10,000 OSS threshold

Once your total cross-border B2C sales to consumers across all EU member states exceed €10,000 in a year, you must charge the destination country's rate. For Portuguese consumers that means 23% / 13% / 6% — or the Madeiran or Azorean schedule if the delivery point is in an autonomous region. Register for the One Stop Shop in your own member state and file a single quarterly OSS return covering the whole EU, rather than taking out a Portuguese registration.

Imports up to €150 — IOSS

For low-value consignments imported from outside the EU, the Import One Stop Shop lets you charge Portuguese IVA at checkout so the parcel clears customs without the recipient being billed import VAT and a handling fee. Above €150, normal import VAT and duty apply at the border.

B2B — autoliquidação (reverse charge)

Cross-border B2B supplies between Portugal and another member state are invoiced without IVA, marked "IVA – autoliquidação", quoting both VAT numbers with the Portuguese one validated in VIES; the customer self-assesses. Portugal also runs a substantial domestic reverse charge under Artigo 2.º CIVA, covering construction services between taxable persons (empreitadas e subempreitadas de construção civil), scrap metal and recoverable waste, supplies of immovable property where the exemption has been waived, and greenhouse gas emission allowances. In those cases the Portuguese buyer pays the tax to the AT.

Fiscal representation

A business established outside the EU that makes taxable supplies in Portugal must appoint a Portuguese-resident fiscal representative who is themselves a Portuguese VAT taxable person, and must tell its Portuguese customers who that representative is before trading — failure to do so can shift liability for the tax onto the customer. Businesses established inside the EU may register directly with the AT without a representative, though many appoint one anyway to handle the Portuguese-language filings.

For modelling landed costs across several rates at once, use our reverse VAT calculator with a custom rate.

Portugal is unusual in the extent to which it enlists consumers in VAT enforcement, and in how directly it rewards them for it.

"Quer fatura com contribuinte?"

Every Portuguese cashier asks whether you want your tax number on the receipt. Giving your NIF pushes the invoice into e-fatura, the AT's consumer portal, where each document is matched against the retailer's SAF-T submission and classified into an expense category. This is what makes Portugal's invoice-reporting regime self-policing: a business that under-declares is contradicted by its own customers' receipts.

Getting 15% of your IVA back through IRS

Under Artigo 78.º-F of the CIRS, part of the IVA a household bears on selected services is credited against its personal income tax:

The total is capped at €250 per household per year, and only invoices carrying your NIF and correctly classified in the e-fatura portal count. Invoices should be reviewed and reclassified before the annual e-fatura deadline in late February.

e-Taxfree Portugal for non-EU visitors

Visitors resident outside the EU can recover the IVA on goods bought for personal use where the purchase exceeds €50 excluding VAT from one retailer on one day, and the goods leave the EU in personal luggage within three months. The retailer issues an electronic tax-free form against your passport; you validate it at an e-Taxfree kiosk in the customs area after check-in, and are directed to a green channel (automatic clearance) or a red one (physical inspection). The refund is paid by the retailer or their intermediary net of handling charges. Services — hotel nights, meals, car hire — are never refundable, and an unvalidated form is worth nothing.