General Daily Briefing: Monday, 28 September 2026
Good morning. Here is your Monday briefing for 28 September 2026: the day's essential Portugal stories for residents, immigrants and anyone keeping an eye on the country, with two new practical guides at the top.
- Tax: a home sold in 2025 cannot use the new IRS capital gains break for reinvesting in a rental, the tax office rules.
- Telecoms: the legal basis for keeping high-risk suppliers such as Huawei out of 5G could lapse on Wednesday.
- Police: PSP and GNR officers march in Porto today over pay, a day before talks with the Interior Minister.
- Lisbon: the ACP has 20,000 signatures for a referendum on the city's shared e-scooters.
- EU funds: Portugal is still trying to recover 400 million euros of Portugal 2020 money paid for ineligible spending.
- Health: medical device suppliers want their SNS levy limited to big firms next year and scrapped in 2028.
Disputing a Hospital or Clinic Bill in Portugal
What a private clinic or hospital must tell you about cost before treatment, what the bill must show, and how to complain to the health regulator, the ERS, if you were charged more than you were quoted.
Applying for a University Grant (Bolsa de Estudo) in Portugal
Who can get a state study grant for a degree, master's or CTeSP course, the income limit, how to apply online by 2 October 2026, and what to do if you are refused.
Also Published Since Yesterday's Briefing
- The Porto Brief, Week of 27 September 2026: FC Porto Beat Benfica to Go Five Points Clear, No Exceptions on the VCI, and the Medical School's Director Is Suspended
- Weekly Digest: September 20 to September 27, 2026
- A Swimmer's Itch Parasite Has Turned Up in Alqueva Snails, the First Time the Species Has Been Recorded in Portugal
- Free Heart-Risk Checks Run in 154 Pharmacies From Tuesday to Sunday, as Cardiologists Push for Screening From Age 35
- Twelve Portuguese Design Brands Share One Shanghai Showroom, Betting on Premium Buyers While China's Property Slump Drags On
- Portugal's Rivers and Aquifers Have Slipped Backwards Over Three Planning Cycles, the Environment Agency Admits, as Work Starts on the 2028 to 2033 Plans
- Parliament Debates Wednesday Whether to Let the Government Rewrite Rental Law by Decree: Two Months of Arrears to End a Lease and No Cap on Deposits
- The Last Picareto Built by Ortiga's Master Caulker Joins the Navy Museum, Ending a Tagus Boatbuilding Tradition
- A Jar of Blended Honey in Portugal Must Now Print Each Country's Share, and China Supplied Half of Last Year's Imports
- Madeira's Second Firefighting Helicopter Goes on Duty Thursday for Two Months, Hired by the Air Force Without a Tender
- Portugal's Health Regulator Tells Private Clinics to Scrap Charges Patients Were Never Quoted, From a 29 Euro Ear Cleaning to a 69.60 Euro Scan
- Fewer Portuguese Teenagers Get Into Fights, Accidents and Trouble Than in 2019, but the Risks Now Cluster in a Smaller Group, ICAD's School Survey Shows
- Portugal's Fiscal Watchdog Raises Its 2026 Growth Forecast to 2.2 Percent, Sees Inflation at 3.2 Percent and Hiring Slowing as Net Migration Eases
- Court of Auditors Refused to Clear a 13.5 Million Euro Contract to Run Évora's Radiotherapy Unit, Saying the Health Service Skipped Partnership Rules
No Capital Gains Break for 2025 Home Sales
The Tax and Customs Authority has ruled that a home sold in 2025 cannot benefit from the new IRS exclusion for capital gains reinvested in a property let at a moderate rent, even if the money is reinvested this year. Decree-Law n.º 97/2026 applies only to sales made between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2029, and the gain counts from the date of the sale. Sellers who do qualify must reinvest between 24 months before and 36 months after the sale, keep the rent within the current 2,300 euro ceiling, sign a lease within six months and keep the home let for at least 36 months in the first five years.
A 5G Deadline Arrives on Wednesday
The 2023 decision barring operators from using suppliers based outside the EU, the OECD or NATO, which shut Huawei out of Portugal's 5G networks, was given 180 days of continued effect by the new cybersecurity law, and those days run out on 30 September. The law requires a new security assessment in that period, but the National Security Office did not answer ECO's questions about it, and a sector source knew of no progress. MEO, the operator hit hardest, is suing the State for 81.7 million euros over the cost of replacing equipment.
Police March in Porto Over Pay
The ASPP/PSP union, joined by the GNR's APG, protests in Porto today, marching from the PSP's metropolitan command to the city hall. The officers want a pre-retirement regime, better pay, a review of supplements and the rest of the 2024 agreement, which raised the risk supplement by 300 euros but left pay scales and careers untouched. Protests are planned in Leiria, Lisbon, Faro, Funchal, Guimarães and Ponta Delgada, and the unions meet the Interior Minister, LuÃs Neves, on Tuesday to discuss careers and working time.
A Referendum on Lisbon Scooters?
The Automóvel Club de Portugal has collected 20,000 validated signatures from Lisbon voters, four times the legal minimum, for a municipal referendum on whether the city's roughly 6,000 shared e-scooters should stay on its streets. The initiative now goes to the Lisbon Municipal Assembly, where a committee has 15 days to examine it before a plenary vote, due in principle within 30 days. If the assembly says yes, the Constitutional Court has about 25 days to check it before a vote can be called.
400 Million Euros of EU Money Still Owed
Portugal registered more than 22,000 debts, worth over one billion euros, from payments under Portugal 2020 for spending later found ineligible or unjustified. About 70 percent has been recovered, and 400 million euros is still owed, much of it already with the tax authority for coercive collection, the Agency for Development and Cohesion told ECO. The list includes the 41 million euros in the Manuel Serrão case, of which the State has not recovered a single euro.
Device Makers Want Their SNS Levy Phased Out
APORMED, which represents 102 medical device companies, wants the "extraordinary" contribution created in the 2020 budget, up to 4 percent of their sales to the public sector, to apply only to large firms in 2027 and to end in 2028. It has raised more than 99 million euros, and was meant to fund medical technology. The association also wants a clause letting suppliers pass on cost increases of 15 to 40 percent on fixed-price public contracts, while noting the SNS now pays in 81 days, its best record.
