The Portuguese tax authority paid up to August 31 a total of 2,590 million euros in income tax refunds, corresponding to almost the entirety of the 2,660 million euros to be returned to taxpayers with settled declarations. The average refund value stood at 980 euros, according to data from the Ministry of Finance.
By that date, the Tax and Customs Authority had settled 6.505 million income tax declarations, 171 thousand more than in the previous campaign. Of this total, 2.713 million gave rise to refunds, representing an increase of 92,128 declarations with refunds compared to the previous year and of 210 million euros in the total refund amount.
The deadline for processing refunds for declarations submitted within the regular deadline ended on August 31. In the case of Automatic Income Tax, the average payment period stood at 11.96 days. 1.727 million payment notices were also issued, corresponding to situations where taxpayers have to pay additional tax to the State.
The law states that refunds under ten euros are not returned and that taxpayers are entitled to compensation on the difference when the tax withheld at source was higher than due, corresponding to 72% of the 12-month Euribor rate.
