Take control of your IRS (Portugal's personal income tax) before it decides for you

In 5 min you'll know: how to validate your invoices in eFatura (the official tax-invoice tracking portal) and confirm if you qualify for IRS Jovem

Every month, before the money reaches your account, the State has already taken a slice. It's called withholding tax and it happens automatically whenever you receive a salary, green receipts or allowances. The problem isn't that they withhold — the problem is that they withhold based on data that may be wrong. If your employer assumes you have no health, housing or education expenses, they withhold more than they should. And that extra money only comes back to you months later, if you know how to claim it. In Lesson 1 we looked at how to read your payslip and identify each deduction line. Now you'll learn to use that information to defend yourself.

Before you continue: what tax is withheld from your payslip every month, and what is the purpose of validating receipts in eFatura?

(Answer in the next paragraph.)

The IRS isn't a monster that appears in April. It's a process that starts in January and ends in August, and most people lose money because they ignore the part that's their responsibility. The first thing you lose if you don't act is the benefit of your own invoices. The eFatura portal automatically records invoices issued with your NIF (Portuguese tax-ID number), but it doesn't classify everything on its own. Health, education, housing and care home expenses must be validated by you by 25 February of the following year. If you don't, the State assumes you have no such expenses — and taxes you as if you earned more than you actually have available. A single click on the portal can return hundreds of euros to you.

The second thing you lose is the adjustment of your withholding tax. If you changed jobs, had children, or started paying rent, you can give your employer a new withholding form. That document tells the employer how much to withhold each month. Without it, the employer uses the standard table — almost always the one that withholds the most. Result: you lend money to the State interest-free for an entire year.

There's also the IRS Jovem, created by Lei n.º 24-D/2022, which exempts the first €28,619 of income from IRS during the early years of professional activity for young people up to age 35. If you're under 35 and this is your first or second year working as an employee, there's a real chance you're paying IRS you shouldn't be. But the reduction isn't automatic — you have to request it.

The simple rule is this: by 25 February each year, log into the eFatura portal, validate your invoices by category, check that your NIF is correctly linked to your employer, and confirm whether you're entitled to IRS Jovem. Thirty minutes a year can mean the equivalent of a month's rent back in your pocket. Anyone who ignores this process isn't saving effort — they're paying more than they should.

Check if you qualify for IRS Jovem and your deductions (90 seconds) →

Your promise: This week, Wednesday at 7pm, I will log into the eFatura portal and validate invoices by category before the deadline.