Latest news and stories about bureaucracy in finance in Portugal for expats and residents.
The Tax and Customs Authority (Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira or AT) announced it is changing its communication model with taxpayers. The agency will stop using traditional envelope-letters for official correspondence as part of a broader modernization of its digital services.
A recent INE survey on contextual costs lists judiciary delays, administrative hurdles and regulatory uncertainty among the top barriers to business activity. The results have prompted interest from ministry study offices but firms say reform is needed to reduce delays and improve competitiveness. Companies that trade or invest in Portugal should track proposed changes to administrative procedures and plan for continued compliance costs in the short term.
INE (Instituto Nacional de Estatística) is Portugal's official statistics office, responsible for collecting, processing, and publishing data on the economy, population, housing, employment, inflation, and social conditions.
Key INE publications include the Consumer Price Index (CPI), quarterly GDP figures, housing price indices, census data, and labor market statistics. These figures are widely used by policymakers, journalists, lenders, and international organizations to assess Portugal's economic and social trends.
INE data is publicly available at ine.pt, where users can access databases, press releases, and interactive tools covering everything from property prices to demographic shifts.
Contextual costs (custos contextuais) are the extra expenses businesses face because of the local economic and regulatory environment, such as administrative burdens, licensing delays, taxes, energy prices and poor infrastructure. Portugal's Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE) tracks these costs because they raise operating expenses and can make the country less attractive for investment; entrepreneurs should include them when budgeting or comparing Portugal with other EU markets.
The opposition does not believe in the Government's ability to execute what has been announced. They denounce problems with 100% lay-offs, credit moratoriums, increased bureaucracy, and rising insurance premiums.
Bureaucracy and delays in decisions by insurance companies are hindering the recovery.
António Costa Silva predicts a supply crisis if the conflict in the Middle East continues. The former Minister of Economy criticises the excessive bureaucracy in Portugal.
An analysis of Italy's digital tax payment system and how it could serve as a model for Portugal to simplify its own tax processes.
Car owners will now pay vehicle tax on fixed dates, instead of doing so in the month of the vehicle's registration. The Tax and Customs Authority warns of IT challenges in the new payment model approved in committee.
The head of the Notaries Association explains how delays in land and commercial registration can harm the economy. Luís Rosa and Saragoça analyse the Sócrates case at the European Court of Human Rights.
Thousands of fish and oysters died after prolonged contact with fresh water. The government has created an “extraordinary support” package of 1.5 million euros, but business owners are “tired” of the bureaucracy.
“In terms of financial and budgetary management, this is anything but independence,” criticised Gabriel Bernardino, who chairs the ASF and requested a new regime in Parliament.
The State is relaxing rules, but does not guarantee that other agents will follow this change. Banks maintain conservative criteria, while municipalities operate with broad and ambiguous margins of interpretation. A chronicle by Liliana Carona.
The 22 measures proposed in the document are based on prior consultation and surveys conducted with intermunicipal entities and metropolitan areas.
The Portuguese Tax Authority's online portal is currently facing technical difficulties.
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Out of 1,268 applications received, only 58 have been paid. The Secretary of State points out that during the Covid pandemic, support payments took an average of 246 days to arrive.
Former president Aníbal Cavaco Silva defended the “reformist action” of Luís Montenegro's government, criticising the “lack of courage” of the PS and the “lack of preparation” of Chega regarding structural reforms, without which Portugal will remain a “relatively poor” European country.
Espaço Cidadão locations in Coimbra, Penafiel, Setúbal, Faro, and Viseu are now offering the service, including the conversion of series A, B, and D.
It is a tradition for government officials to attack bankers. The Minister of Economy recently did so, showing little memory of what led us to the 2011 crisis.
The president of CIP — the Portuguese Business Confederation — warns that 'the Government must move from words to deeds' to 'significantly reduce bureaucracy and, more generally, the contextual costs that drain energy, time and resources and that constrain business productivity and competitiveness' in the country. Armindo's warning ...
Companies' context costs — such as reporting obligations, bureaucracy or system inefficiencies — rose in 2024 and reached their highest level in ten years, Jornal de Negócios reports this Tuesday, citing an analysis by the research units of the Ministries of Finance and Economy published in the latest Bulletin ...
These were some of the difficulties identified by social sector confederations at the Economy and Social Cohesion Committee, hearings requested by the Socialist Party (PS) on the impact of the reprogramming of the PRR.
“We work in very precarious conditions,” the president of Compete says peremptorily, and therefore acknowledges the “major difficulty” in meeting the Government's target to analyse applications within 60 days and make payments within 30 days. “We work in very precarious situations in terms of human resources and capacity to ...”
Companies report a 'slightly positive' assessment of their activities in both national and international markets this year, with improved expectations for 2026. Bureaucracy remains the main obstacle, according to a survey released on Tuesday by the AEP. Conducted earlier this month among 780 member companies of the Portuguese Business Association (AEP), ...
The Portuguese Association of Property Developers and Real Estate Investors (APPII) believes that assigning the “responsibility” of VAT settlement to the developer “entails an additional level of bureaucracy and risk that must be carefully considered” in the government's housing package, according to CEO Manuel Maria Gonçalves. In the proposals sent to parliament by the government for ...
