Average IRC tax 20% in 2022

The average corporation tax paid by companies in Portugal in 2022 increased 1.4% and stood at 20.3%.

And surtaxes saw a 57.7% increase on the previous year with over 22.4% of companies bearing the brunt of this increase in taxes according to the Portuguese tax authorities.
Portugal’s high tax rates are one of the constant gripes made by companies, and the statistics now released seem to support them as the average effective tax exceeded a new 20% bar — which has not happened since 2018 – since then companies have taken advantage of various benefits and tax incentives available under the law.
In 2022, 22.7% of companies took advantage of tax benefits totalling €1.1Bn — 18.8% more than in 2021.
On the other hand, the average effective tax rate varies depending on the sector of activity. Data from the tax authorities reveals that companies working in artistic, entertainment, sports and recreational areas paid average tax rates of around 13.7%, agriculture paid 15.1% on average, while companies involved in health and social sectors hovering at around 15.2%.
Taxes on companies linked to education and mining were also below 16%.(15.7%)
The average tax levied on financial and insurance services companies was as high as 26.7%, which in addition to IRC and surtaxes were hit by the ‘special contribution’ and solidarity taxes on the banking sector.
Utility companies also paid a high tax rate with electricity (22.5%), gas and waste (21.9%), administrative (21%), transport, logistics and warehousing companies (20.9%) all paying above average tax rates.