Property tax nets €144M in 2021

The extraordinary surcharge on Portugal’s property tax AIMI ( Additional Municipal Property Tax) brought municipal councils in around €144 million in 2021.

The tax covered the greatest number of property owners since being created in 2017, yet the revenues made were the lowest ever.
According to statistical data on the AIMI (Additional Municipal Tax on Property) for 2021, which have just been released, the tax was levied on 81,487 tax payers, with companies and individuals bearing the lion’s share since the tax was introduced.
In terms of revenues, the same data shows that the amount of tax generated last year was €144.12 million, a fall of 2.66% on the €148.06 million for the previous year.
This is according to the Portuguese tax authorities (Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira) (AT) which explains that the negative variation in the taxable amount from the AIMI accompanied the fall in the taxable amount on buildings owned by companies.
In 2017, the Taxable Amount on Patrimony (VPT) – or “rates” in English – on 563,399 properties under the AIMI totalled 33,578 million, of which €29,424 million was held by companies and those pertaining to undivided estates — and €4,154 million from individual taxpayers.
In 2021, VPT on buildings subject to AIMI fell 4.05% to a total of €31,312 million, with this fall explained by properties owned by companies or collective entities, Here the number of properties subject to the tax increased from 550,356 in 2020 to 554,423 in 2021.
The VPT, or Rateable Value of Properties (Valor Patrimonial Tributário), is the value attributed by the tax authorities on properties for tax purposes and is the base used to calculate property taxes, or in certain cases, to determine the minimum taxes applicable to property transactions.
The VPT of properties for habitation and plots of land for construction is updated every three years, based on factors corresponding to 75% of the currency devaluation coefficients fixed annually by the government. For income tax purposes, this can also be revalued at the request of the property owner within three years of the last revaluation.
Additional Municipal Property Tax –AIMI (known as an additional IMI) was created in 2017 to compensate for the termination of the IS tax which taxed property owners 1% of the VPT if that figure was €1 million or more.
The AIMI does not apply to all types of property as the law excludes: rustic land (non-urban) properties and properties registered as commercial, industrial or service providing. Therefore, the AIMI applies to the remaining properties, which include apartments, houses and plots for construction, amongst others.
To calculate the AIMI, a combined total value of the VPT of all properties owned by each individual (except the properties excluded from AIMI) is taken into account.