In these two situations, in which the person becomes a tax resident after purchasing or renting the property, it is up to the taxpayer to ask the Tax and Customs Authority (AT) to refund the “amount corresponding to the difference between the tax paid [7,5%] and the amount that would result from the application of regular rates.
The increase in IMT had already been predicted since September, when the executive gave the ‘green light’ to the guidelines of the Construir Portugal – Rental and Simplification program, a package that gave rise to two legislative initiatives approved by the Council of Ministers on Friday, November 28th.
The diploma that amends the IMT Code also includes another measure to encourage the purchase of housing in the area of this tax.
Whoever buys their first home at controlled costs will be able to benefit from an exemption from this tax, the Government predicts.
If the municipalities understand, they can, upon deliberation by the municipal assembly, “exempt from IMT acquisitions whose value that would serve as the basis for settlement does not exceed” 324,058 euros, reads the legislative initiative.
Taxpayers can also benefit from a Stamp Tax exemption on housing purchases up to this level.
Out of these latest incentives in IMT and Stamp Tax are the “holders of property rights, or partial figures of this right, over urban residential buildings, on the date of transfer or at any time in the previous three years”, enshrines the proposed law.
If the purchase is made by a couple, “the verification of the exemption assumptions and the calculation of the IMT” relating to a property that will constitute a common asset of the couple is carried out “individually in relation to each spouse in equal shares, with each spouse having to present an IMT declaration”.