State collected €929M more in taxes until February

  • Lusa
  • 28 March 2019

The government collected €929m more in taxes in the first two months of this year than in 2018, according to the overview of the budgetary execution, published this Wednesday.

Portugal’s state collected €929 million more in taxes in the first two months of this year, compared to the same period in 2018, a total of almost €7.7 billion, according to the overview of the budgetary execution published on Wednesday.

“Until February, the net tax revenue from the state sub-sector saw an increase of €928.5 million (+13.7%) compared to the same period in the previous year, reaching almost €7.7 billion,” reads the overview of the budgetary execution published on Wednesday by the General Directorate of Budget (DGO).

This increase resulted “fundamentally from the performance of IVA, ISP and IRS,” also highlighting the behaviour of the other taxes, except tobacco tax, the directorate said.

From January to February, the revenue from direct taxes increased 8.5%, due to the IRS, which grew by 7%, and to the IRC, with a 33.1% increase, compared to the same period in 2018.

The revenue from indirect taxes rose by 16.6% until February, compared to 2018, with increases in the ISP – Tax on Petroleum and Energy Products, of 31.3%, and on IRS – Valued Added Tax, of 17.6%.

On the other hand, revenues with IT – Tobacco Tax fell 7.5% until February.

The government mentioned the extension to January 2019 of the deadline for the payment of taxes in the financial treasury, with a positive impact on revenues of €291 million, and the payment in 2019 of swaps interest, “which implies an annual reduction,” of €306 million.

The ministry of finance also said that “revenue growth accompanies the growth of economic activity and employment.”