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Validating Your Invoices on e-Fatura in Portugal

Deductible expenses, the six deduction categories, the February deadline, and how to maximise your income tax refund.

Validating Your Invoices on e-Fatura in Portugal

Last verified: September 2026.

Who this is for

  • Tax residents in Portugal, employed, self-employed, or retired, who file an annual IRS return.
  • Newcomers with a new NIF who want every purchase to count towards their tax bill.

Not for you if: you are not tax resident in Portugal. These deductions apply only to residents. Read Becoming a Tax Resident in Portugal first.

Updated September 2026. For 2026 income, the rent deduction cap rises to €900, and books, shows, museums, and monuments now count towards the VAT benefit.

e-Fatura is the tax authority's online record of every invoice issued with your tax number (NIF). The invoices in it become deductions that come straight off your income tax (IRS). Most are sorted automatically. Some sit as "pending" until you choose a category, and you must do that by the end of February for the previous year. It takes a few minutes a month, it is free, and it can be worth several hundred euros a year.

How e-Fatura works

When a shop or service provider issues an invoice with your NIF on it, it reports the invoice to the tax authority (Autoridade Tributária, known as Finanças). The invoice then appears in your e-Fatura account at faturas.portaldasfinancas.gov.pt, or in the e-Fatura app.

Finanças uses the seller's registered business activity to put each invoice into a category, such as health or education. Each category turns a percentage of what you spent into a deduction from your tax, up to a ceiling. The totals then feed into your annual return. See Filing Your Annual Income Tax Return (IRS) in Portugal.

You log in with your NIF and Finanças password, or with the Chave Móvel Digital. See Activating the Chave Móvel Digital in Portugal.

Step 1: give your NIF at every purchase

At the till you will hear "Contribuinte?" or "Com número de contribuinte?". Say yes and give your NIF. Do this for groceries, the pharmacy, restaurants, the vet, car repairs, school costs, and anything else.

Each member of the household counts. Give each child's own NIF for their school and health costs, so the invoices land in the right place.

If you forget, the law lets you add an invoice without a NIF by scanning its QR code or entering its unique document code. Asking for the NIF at the till is still far easier.

If you are self-employed and pay VAT, only purchases outside your business count as personal deductions.

Step 2: sort your pending invoices

Some sellers are registered for more than one activity. A shop that sells both medicines and cosmetics is a typical case. Finanças cannot tell which category your purchase belongs to, so the invoice is marked "pending" (pendente).

To sort them:

  1. Log in to e-Fatura and open the consumer area (Consumidor), then the option to check invoices.
  2. Filter by "Pendentes" for the year.
  3. For each invoice, choose the correct category and confirm.
  4. Say which household member the invoice relates to, where asked.

If you never sort a pending invoice, you may lose the deduction it would have earned. Checking once a month avoids a long session in February.

Also check these, which only you can confirm:

  • Health items at the standard 23% VAT rate (such as some medical devices). They count as health only if you had a prescription, and you must mark them on the portal.
  • School meals. Mark the invoices as school meals so they count as education.
  • Rent for a student living away from home. Mark the invoices as rent for a displaced student (see below).
  • Health or education costs abroad. Enter them yourself on the Portal das Finanças with the invoice details.

The deductions and what each is worth

These are the percentages and ceilings for 2026 income, which you will claim in the return filed in 2027. Unless stated, the ceiling is per household.

General family expenses

35% of everyday spending, such as supermarket shopping, clothes, fuel, and utilities, up to €250 per taxpayer. A married couple can therefore reach €500. Single-parent households get 45%, up to €335.

Health

15% of health spending, up to €1,000. It covers doctors, dentists, hospitals, pharmacies, opticians, and health insurance premiums. It does not include the part paid back by an insurer.

Education and training

30% of education spending, up to €800. It covers nurseries, schools, universities, recognised training, school books, and school meals.

If a household member aged 25 or under studies more than 50 km from home, their rent also counts. Up to €400 of rent can be deducted, and the ceiling rises to €1,100.

Housing

Two separate reliefs, and you cannot combine them for the same home:

  • Rent. Tenants on a permanent home lease deduct 15% of rent paid. The cap is €900 for 2026 income and €1,000 from 2027. Tenants with taxable income up to €30,000 may get a higher cap, worked out automatically. The rent only appears if your landlord issues electronic rent receipts. See Renting a Home in Portugal.
  • Mortgage interest. Only for loans signed on or before 31 December 2011, for your permanent home. You deduct 15% of the interest, up to €296. Lower incomes can reach €450. Mortgages from 2012 onwards get no deduction.

Care homes

25% of fees for care homes, day centres, and home care, up to €403.75. This covers you, and relatives whose own income is not above the minimum wage.

The VAT benefit for asking for invoices

You get back part of the VAT you paid in certain sectors. All of these share one ceiling of €250 per household:

  • 15% of the VAT on car and motorcycle repairs, restaurants and hotels, hairdressers and beauty salons, and vets.
  • 35% of the VAT on veterinary medicines.
  • 30% of the VAT on gyms, sports clubs, and sports lessons.
  • 100% of the VAT on public transport passes and tickets. See Public Transport Passes in Portugal.
  • 100% of the VAT on newspaper and magazine subscriptions, including digital ones.
  • New for 2026: 15% of the VAT on books from bookshops, theatre, music and dance, show venues, libraries, museums, and historic sites. Cinema is not included.

The overall ceiling

Above the separate ceilings sits one overall limit on the total of most deductions. It covers health, education, housing, care homes, and the VAT benefit, but not general family expenses. For 2026 income:

  • Taxable income up to €8,342: no overall limit.
  • Taxable income between €8,342 and €80,000: a limit that falls from €2,500 to €1,000 as income rises.
  • Taxable income above €80,000: €1,000.

Households with three or more dependants get these limits raised by 5% per dependant. For a jointly taxed couple, the income used is half the combined income.

If you earn more, large health or school bills may not all count. See How Taxes Work in Portugal for the brackets.

The deadlines

WhatWhen
Sort pending invoices and flag special itemsBy the end of February of the following year
Finanças publishes your deduction totalsBy 15 March
Complain about the totalsBy 31 March
File your IRS return1 April to 30 June

For 2025 invoices, the February deadline moved to 2 March 2026 because 28 February fell on a Saturday. For 2026 invoices, 28 February 2027 is a Sunday, so expect the deadline to be 1 March 2027. Check the Portal das Finanças notice each year.

If the totals published in March look wrong, file a complaint (reclamação) on the portal by 31 March. After that, the figures go into your return as they are.

Donating part of your tax at no cost

When you file, you can give 1% of your assessed tax to a registered charity, religious body, cultural, sporting, or environmental organisation. You enter its NIF on the return. The money comes from tax you owe anyway, so it costs you nothing.

You can also give away your VAT benefit to the same organisation. This one does cost you: the amount goes to them instead of reducing your tax. Tick it only if you mean to.

A checklist for the year

  • Give your NIF, and your children's, at every purchase.
  • Ask your landlord for electronic rent receipts.
  • Clear pending invoices every month or two.
  • Flag prescribed health items, school meals, and displaced-student rent.
  • Check the totals after 15 March and complain by 31 March if needed.
  • File between 1 April and 30 June.

Sources

This guide is written from official Portuguese and EU sources and, for prices and contact details, the providers' own websites.

Last verified September 2026. Rules and fees change; check the official source before acting.

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