A new proposal by the government intends to widen the scope of companies benefiting from a reduced IRC (corporate income tax) when making new investments, regardless of the scale of the investment, in 2013.
The government considers this to be a crucial measure to attract new investment for the country, particularly foreign, and hopes to see it approved by Brussels.
According to the Diário Económico, this is an update on a proposal originally presented by Álvaro Santos Pereira, Minister of Economy, which raised some doubts from the European Commission and which led to some readjustments.
According to the new proposal, the reduced IRC at 10% (otherwise at 25%) is no longer exclusive to new companies, but now includes all companies making new investments from 2013.
There will be no limits to the investment scale to benefit from the measure, which means that any investment is eligible – in the original proposal, the 10% IRC tax would only have been available to companies investing more than €3 million.
Companies would also be exempt from IMI and IMT (property rates) relating to the new investments.
Final approval by the troika is still required.
