Anyone trying to keep up with ever-changing rules in this country may have missed this one, as it came in during a press conference that set tongues wagging for another reason entirely. But so that everyone is ‘up-to-date’ with alterations to ‘IUC’ (standing for ‘imposto único de circulação’, or ‘one-off payment for using Portugal’s roads every year’), the next payment that we all have to make, irrespective of the date of manufacture of our vehicles, is April… 2027.
Earlier this year we were all informed that payments had to be made in February next year (2026), but apparently there was quite an outcry from people who would have found themselves paying IUC twice in a short space of time that the government decided to stretch the goalposts.
Does everyone understand this far – because there is a little more to take in: payments could end up being split – twice or even three times.
How can a ‘one-off payment’ be split at all, you might ask? The answer to this is that it is designed to help drivers whose vehicles carry an IUC of over €100, or those rare few whose IUC costs them more than €500. Anyone paying such exorbitant costs might find stumping up for them twice in a 12-month period instead of the usual once ‘a bit much’ – so the government is bringing in a ‘transitory regime’ to allow drivers to pay part of their ‘one-off’ payment in April, and the second part in October (for those with IUC’s over €100), and in April, July and October for those with IUC’s of over €500..
According to SIC, this transitory regime will continue through 2027.
The reasons given for ‘doing away with the old system’ (of paying one’s IUC on the anniversary of the manufacture of the vehicle) is ‘simplification’.
The government suggests it will be “so much simpler” if everyone knows the payment is due in April (the start of the tax year) – and this, naturally, will translate into a veritable cascade of state revenue at a key point in the financial year – instead of people’s IUC payments dribbling in as they used to as the year goes by.
All that has to happen now for this ruse of simplification to reach the Statute Books is for parliament to sign off on it…
Watch this space!
Source: SIC
