Filing Your IRS in Portugal in 2026 — A Practical Guide to the Modelo 3 Declaration, the 1 April–30 June Window, IRS Automático Pre-fill, the IRS Jovem Exemption Ladder and the Reembolso Timing

This guide covers the practical mechanics of the 2026 IRS filing campaign — the Modelo 3 declaration that reports your 2025 income. The filing window opens on 1 April 2026 and closes on 30 June 2026 for residents and non-residents alike, regardless of income category. The Autoridade Tributária (AT — Tax Authority) had already processed 3.21 million Modelo 3 declarations and refunded €2.36 billion through the end-May 2026 midpoint (covered in our 30 May AT reembolsos brief), which means roughly half of the campaign's declarations were already in the system at the time of writing.

This is the article you want open when you log into the Portal das Finanças.

Who Has to File

The default rule: every tax resident in Portugal who earned any of the eight Modelo 3 income categories in 2025 must file. The categories are A (employment income from a labour contract), B (independent / self-employed income, including Recibos Verdes), E (capital income — interest, dividends), F (rental income from properties in Portugal or abroad), G (capital gains — Mais-Valias on shares, properties, crypto), H (pensions), and the residual sub-categories within those. Non-resident filers with Portuguese-source income (a Portuguese property, a Portuguese employer, dividends from a Portuguese-listed company) file the same Modelo 3 with the residence status set to non-resident on annex appropriate to the income type.

The narrow exception list — taxpayers who do not need to file — covers people whose 2025 income was entirely from Category A or H, was below the IRS minimum-existence threshold (around €11,480 for the basic case), and whose IRS retention at source already cleared the year's liability. If you are not 100% certain you sit inside that exception, file.

The Portal das Finanças Path

The Modelo 3 lives at portaldasfinancas.gov.pt. The login uses either your NIF and Portal das Finanças password, the Chave Móvel Digital (CMD — covered in our CMD activation guide), or the Cartão de Cidadão with reader. The CMD is by far the fastest if you already have it activated — the Modelo 3 e-form opens immediately on login.

The form has three states you will see:

• IRS Automático (pre-filled, available): AT has reconstructed your return from employer, social-security, bank and AT-validated supplier filings and presents it ready to confirm.
• IRS Manual (you fill the annexes): The pre-fill is either unavailable for your category mix or you have elected to override it.
• IRS Mista (partial pre-fill): AT has built some of the declaration but you need to complete one or more annexes manually.

IRS Automático — Eligibility

The pre-filled path applies if your 2025 income met all of the following: (a) you were tax-resident in Portugal for the full year, (b) all income was Category A and/or H, (c) you had no foreign-source income to declare, (d) you did not earn rental income, (e) you did not realise Mais-Valias, and (f) you do not need to declare overrides on the AT-pre-validated despesas (deductible expenses validated through your NIF at the till). For roughly 65% of resident taxpayers, IRS Automático is the available path. You log in, scroll through the pre-fill, confirm, and submit.

If your filing is materially different from what AT pre-filled — for example, you have a deductible expense AT missed, or a dependant calculation needs adjustment — you cannot edit the pre-fill in line. You decline the pre-fill, drop into IRS Manual, and rebuild the relevant annex.

The Annex Architecture

The Modelo 3 face sheet plus the relevant annex(es) constitute the full declaration:

• Anexo A — Category A (employment) and Category H (pensions). Pre-fill almost always covers this.
• Anexo B — Category B simplified regime (you opted for or fell inside the Regime Simplificado on Recibos Verdes — turnover below €200,000 by default).
• Anexo C — Category B organised accounting regime (mandatory above €200,000 or by election).
• Anexo D — Transparency-regime entities (sociedades sujeitas à transparência fiscal).
• Anexo E — Category E capital income.
• Anexo F — Category F rental income from real estate.
• Anexo G — Category G Mais-Valias and other patrimonial gains (real estate, securities, crypto).
• Anexo G1 — Mais-Valias not subject to taxation (the reinvestment exemption, family-home transfers).
• Anexo H — Tax benefits and deductions to the colecta (PPR contributions, health, education, housing).
• Anexo I — Income of inheritance estates pending share-out.
• Anexo J — Foreign-source income (the annex non-residents and dual-source residents read first).
• Anexo L — Residente Não Habitual (RNH) and the post-2024 IFICI regime.

Most expat filers in 2026 land on one of three combinations: Anexo A + Anexo H (employment + deductions); Anexo B + Anexo H (Recibos Verdes + deductions); or Anexo A + Anexo J + Anexo H (employment + foreign income + deductions).

IRS Jovem — The Exemption Ladder

If you were under 35 at year-end 2025 and earned Category A or B income, you qualify for the IRS Jovem partial-exemption regime. The 2025 architecture (the version applicable to the 2026 filing) runs a sliding scale across the first ten years of working life:

• Year 1: 100% exemption, capped at 55× IAS (~€28,738).
• Years 2–4: 75% exemption, capped at 40× IAS.
• Years 5–7: 50% exemption, capped at 30× IAS.
• Years 8–10: 25% exemption, capped at 20× IAS.

You opt into the regime on the Modelo 3 face sheet (Quadro 4F). Once selected, the exemption ladder counts down regardless of whether you work in any given year. The IRS Jovem stacks with the RNH/IFICI regime only in narrow cases — if you are inside IFICI, file Anexo L first and let the regime collisions resolve in AT's favour.

Deductions to the Colecta (Anexo H)

The big-ticket deductions for the 2025 filing year:

• Despesas Gerais Familiares: 35% of qualifying expenses up to €250 per taxpayer (€500 in a joint filing), validated through NIF at the till during 2025.
• Saúde: 15% of healthcare expenses up to €1,000.
• Educação: 30% of education expenses up to €800, with the cap lifting in inland low-density territories.
• Habitação: 15% of mortgage interest (for loans signed before 31 December 2011) or 15% of rent paid up to €502, with PEPAH amplification for low-income tenants.
• Lar: 25% of nursing-home expenses up to €403.75 for a parent or ascendant.
• PPR (Plano Poupança Reforma): 20% of contributions, with caps stepping from €400 (under-35) down to €300 (50+) per taxpayer.
• IVA dedutível: 15% of the IVA paid on auto repairs, restoration, hairdressing, veterinary services and gym memberships, validated through NIF at the till.

The AT-pre-validated despesa pool is visible at portaldasfinancas.gov.pt under Faturas → Consultar Faturas. The pre-fill uses that pool. If you disagree with the AT classification of any individual fatura, the override window for the 2025 expenses closed on 25 March 2026 — by the time you read this in the filing season, the classification is locked.

Mais-Valias — Anexo G

If you sold a property, shares, or crypto in 2025, you file Anexo G. Three points to pay attention to:

• Real estate Mais-Valias: 50% of the gain is taxable (the other 50% is exempt by default for residents). The gain is added to your other income and taxed at the general escalão rates. Non-residents in 2025 still face the deemed 28% flat rate on the gain unless they opted into the general-rate regime — a Lei do Orçamento change has equalised this for residents from 2024 income onward but the non-resident default still bites if not actively elected against.
• Family-home reinvestment exemption: If you sold a primary residence in 2025 and reinvested the net proceeds in a new primary residence within 36 months (or had already done so in the prior 24 months), file Anexo G1 to flag the exemption. The Choque Fiscal diploma paused the 36-month clock in some cross-border-reinvestment cases (covered in our Choque Fiscal brief) — check if your timeline triggered the pause.
• Securities and crypto: 28% flat rate on the realised gain unless you opt for the general escalão rates (worth doing only if your effective marginal escalão is lower than 28%). Crypto Mais-Valias have followed the securities rules in full since 2023.

Refund Timing

AT's 2026 reembolso campaign has been faster than the regulatory 5-month statutory window. The end-May 2026 read (€2.36 billion paid, 3.21 million declarations cleared, average refund €694) implies a mean reembolso turnaround of around 21 days for IRS Automático filers who completed in April. The pattern from prior years:

• File in April: Refund typically lands in May or first week of June.
• File in May: Refund typically lands in June or first week of July.
• File in June: Refund typically lands in July or August.

The single biggest cause of delay is an IBAN mismatch — AT has the old account on file, or the IBAN entered on the Modelo 3 does not match a domicile registered to your NIF. Update the IBAN under Portal das Finanças → Cidadãos → Outros Serviços → IBAN before filing, not after.

The smallest balances (positive or negative) are absorbed by the AT minimum-collection rule (covered in our tiny-balance brief) — refunds under €10 and tax liabilities under €25 are written off rather than processed.

Late Filing — What Happens

The hard deadline is 23:59 on 30 June 2026. After that, you can still file but the regime moves to declaração de substituição (substitute declaration) or declaração tardia (late declaration). The penalty schedule:

• Filing 1–30 days late: €25 to €200 coima, reduced to half if paid voluntarily inside the notification window.
• Filing more than 30 days late: €150 to €375 coima, with the half-reduction still available if you self-flag before AT notifies you.
• Failure to file at all: AT issues a liquidação oficiosa based on its own reconstruction of your income — almost always less favourable than what you would have declared yourself, and typically without your deductions.

The default counsel: even if you cannot pay any IRS owed, file by 30 June. The coima is materially smaller than the lost refund or denied deductions on a liquidação oficiosa.

RNH / IFICI Filers

If you sit on the legacy Residente Não Habitual regime (entries up to 31 December 2023) or the post-2024 IFICI regime, file Anexo L alongside the income annexes. The IFICI architecture limits the qualifying high-skilled professions list more tightly than RNH did, but the 20% flat-rate on Portuguese-source income from those professions remains the headline benefit. Pension income from foreign sources under RNH continues to be taxed at 10% for legacy holders; IFICI does not offer the equivalent pension benefit.

What This Means for Expats

• If you arrived in 2025: File Anexo A + Anexo J + (Anexo L if RNH or IFICI applicable). Your residency status changes mid-year and the Modelo 3 needs to flag this on the face sheet (Quadro 8B). Get the IBAN registered to your NIF before filing.
• If you work on Recibos Verdes: File Anexo B (Simplificado below €200,000 turnover). The Simplificado regime applies a 75% activity coefficient (you are taxed on 75% of gross turnover); the remaining 25% is the deemed expense allowance. Our Recibos Verdes activation guide covers the upstream registration.
• If you own a Portuguese property: Anexo F for rental income (if any) or no additional annex if you live in it. IMI is paid separately on the May/August/November schedule (covered in our IMI guide) and does not appear on the Modelo 3.
• If you sold a Portuguese property in 2025: Anexo G mandatory. Calculate the gain in EUR using the original acquisition VPT (or actual purchase price, whichever is higher) and the disposal price net of escritura costs. Reinvestment-exemption claims go on Anexo G1.
• If you hold foreign rental, dividend or pension income: Anexo J mandatory. Portugal taxes worldwide income for residents. The Convenção para Evitar a Dupla Tributação (CDT) with your source country sets the credit calculation — apply the credit on Anexo J Quadro 5.

Practical Checklist Before You Click Submit

• IBAN registered against your NIF and matches the Modelo 3 entry.
• Anexo H deductions match your AT Faturas pool, plus any non-AT-validated expenses you are entitled to claim.
• Dependants (filhos, ascendentes a cargo) correctly listed on Quadro 6A and 6B.
• If joint filing: both NIFs and both signatures via CMD or password.
• If filing Anexo J: foreign-source amounts converted to EUR using the 31 December 2025 ECB reference rate (or the receipt-date rate for one-off transactions).
• If filing Anexo G: acquisition documentation (escritura) on hand to substantiate the basis.

Submit, capture the comprovativo PDF, and watch the e-fatura inbox for the liquidação confirmation. AT will issue the demonstração de liquidação within roughly two weeks of submission for IRS Automático and four to six weeks for IRS Manual filings.