Moderate tax burden, but high fiscal effort

Portugal does not stand out in the European Union for having a particularly high tax and social contribution burden as a percentage of GDP. The problem arises when this burden is compared to the Portuguese people's contributory capacity, measured by their relative standard of living. In 2025, Portugal had only the 20th highest tax and social contribution burden in the EU, but showed the 6th highest fiscal effort, precisely because the standard of living fell to the 6th lowest in the Union in light of the new population data released by Statistics Portugal (INE). The comparison with Eastern European countries reinforces this conclusion. Portugal was overtaken by several of them in terms of standard of living and also lost part of the fiscal advantage it previously maintained relative to these countries. The article, authored by Óscar Afonso, analyzes how the Portuguese fiscal effort is disproportionately high given their relatively low standard of living in the European Union.