Government prepares the end of PEC in the 2022 State Budget

It is no longer mandatory since 2019 and next year it may even cease to exist. The government is studying ending the special payment on account (PEC) of the corporate income tax in the State Budget for 2022 (OE2022). This measure should cover all companies and not just MSMEs.

In the State Budget for 2019 (OE2019), the government made optional the special payment on account of corporate income taxes (IRC), an advance payment of IRC that companies make to the State, assuming that the turnover of the current year will be equal to that of the previous year. From 2019, companies that wanted to could request exemption from this payment, as long as their tax situation was regularised. Those who continued to pay the PEC could then deduct this amount from the IRC collections, the tax imposed on the company’s profits.

During the pandemic, given the exceptional situation, the Portuguese government decided, together with its parliamentary partners, to suspend the PEC, but it was limited to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

There are currently three IRC’s advance payments: the payment on account, the additional payment on account – payment for companies with taxable profits above €1.5 million – and the special payment on account, which was originally created to fight tax evasion by serving as a guarantee that all companies paid taxes to the state.

It should be noted that, besides companies that have already requested exemption from the tax authorities under the measure introduced in the OE2019, companies that adopted the simplified IRC regime introduced in 2014 also do not make special payments on account.