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Paying IMI property tax in Portugal

How Portugal's annual IMI property tax is calculated, when and how to pay it, which exemptions you can claim, and when AIMI applies.

Paying IMI property tax in Portugal

Last verified: September 2026.

Who this is for

  • You own, or are about to buy or inherit, a flat, house, or plot of land in Portugal.
  • You live in Portugal or abroad. IMI works the same way for residents and non-residents.
  • You want to know what the bill will be, when it falls due, and how to pay it.

Not for you if: you are buying and want the one-off purchase tax. Read "Buying property in Portugal as a foreigner", which covers IMT and stamp duty on the purchase, instead.

Updated September 2026. The 2026 late-payment interest rate is 7.221%, and the low-income exemption limits rose with the 2026 IAS.

IMI (Imposto Municipal sobre Imóveis) is Portugal's annual property tax. If you own property in Portugal on 31 December, you owe IMI for that year, whether you live in it, rent it out, or live abroad. You do not file anything. Finanças works out the bill and sends it to you in spring. Most homes pay 0.3% to 0.45% of their tax value each year, so a flat with a €120,000 tax value costs €360 to €540. You pay in one, two, or three instalments between May and November.

What IMI is and who pays it

IMI is a tax on owning real estate. It funds the council (câmara municipal) where the property sits. Finanças, the tax authority, calculates and collects it on the council's behalf.

The taxpayer is whoever owns the property on 31 December of the tax year. The bill you pay in 2026 is for 2025, based on who owned the property on 31 December 2025. If you bought in January 2026, last year's IMI belongs to the seller. Your first bill arrives in spring 2027.

Two other holders count as owners for IMI. If you hold a life interest (usufruto) or a surface right over the property, you pay the IMI, not the bare owner.

Every registered property in Portugal is liable, urban or rural. Non-residents pay on exactly the same basis as residents. There is no foreign-owner surcharge.

How the bill is worked out

The bill is your property's tax value multiplied by the rate your council has set.

The tax value (VPT). IMI is charged on the Valor Patrimonial Tributário (VPT, taxable property value), not on the market price or what you paid. Finanças sets the VPT for each property using a formula. It takes a base construction value per square metre and adjusts it for floor area, use (home, shop, office), location, quality and comfort features, and age.

Older buildings get a lower age coefficient, so their VPT is often well below market value. The VPT changes when the property is sold or inherited, after major building work, or when Finanças runs a general revaluation.

The rate. Each council sets its own rate every year within a legal band. The rates are:

  • Urban property (homes, shops, offices, building land): 0.3% to 0.45%, set by each council.
  • Rural land (farm and forest plots): a fixed 0.8%.
  • Property held by an entity based in a listed tax haven: 7.5%.

More than half of Portugal's 308 councils charge the 0.3% floor for the 2026 bill. Councils may also vote local adjustments. They can triple the rate on buildings empty for more than a year or in ruins. They can cut the rate by up to 20% on homes let on the rental market, and by up to 50% on classified heritage buildings.

Example. A flat with a VPT of €120,000 in a council charging 0.3% costs €360 a year. The same flat in a council charging 0.45% costs €540. The difference between the floor and the ceiling is 50% more tax, so it pays to know your council's rate.

How to check your VPT and your council's rate

You need a Portuguese tax number (NIF) and a Portal das Finanças login before you can do any of this. See our guide to getting a Portuguese NIF if you do not have one yet.

To see your VPT:

  1. Log in at portaldasfinancas.gov.pt with your NIF and password, or with Chave Móvel Digital.
  2. Search for "Caderneta Predial" or go to Serviços, then Imóveis (Prédios), then Consultar Caderneta Predial.
  3. Open the property. The property record (caderneta predial) shows the VPT, every coefficient used to calculate it, and the property's registration number.

To see your council's rate, search the same portal for "Consultar taxas de IMI". Choose the district and council. The page returns the urban rate, the rural rate, and whether the council has voted the family deduction for the year.

When you pay

Finanças assesses IMI in February and April, and the payment note (nota de cobrança) reaches you by the end of April. It goes by post, or to your electronic mailbox if you have activated electronic notifications on the portal. The note is also always available in your portal account. If your address or contact details are out of date, you may never see the note, but the deadline still runs. Update them before April.

How many instalments you get depends on the size of the total bill, not on how many properties you own:

  • Under €10: no bill is issued.
  • €10 to €100: one payment, due in May.
  • €100.01 to €500: two instalments, due in May and November.
  • Over €500: three instalments, due in May, August, and November.

Each deadline is the last day of the month. When that day falls on a weekend, the deadline moves to the next working day. In 2026, 31 May was a Sunday, so the May instalment was due on 1 June. You may always pay the whole bill in May if you prefer.

How to pay

You have several routes. All of them use the payment reference printed on the note.

  • Multibanco or home banking. Enter the entity, reference, and amount from the note at any ATM (Pagamentos, then Impostos), in your bank's app, or by MB Way.
  • Portal das Finanças. Log in and find the note under Imóveis (Prédios), then IMI, then Notas de cobrança. You can pay from there or copy the reference.
  • Direct debit (débito direto). On the portal you can set up direct debit for IMI. Each instalment is then taken from your bank account on the due date. This is the surest way to avoid a missed instalment.
  • In person. At a Finanças office or a Loja do Cidadão counter. Slower, but useful if you have a question to raise at the same time.

There is no fee for paying by any of these methods.

Exemptions and deductions you can claim

Three reliefs matter most to residents. Non-residents cannot use them, because all three depend on the property being your own permanent home in Portugal.

The three-year exemption on your main home. When you buy, build, or extend a property and make it your own permanent home (habitação própria e permanente), you pay no IMI on it for three years. The conditions are:

  • The property's VPT is €125,000 or less.
  • Your household's taxable income for IRS in the previous year was €153,300 or less.
  • You move in and register the address as your tax domicile within six months of buying.
  • You have no unpaid tax or Social Security debts.

Finanças recognises the exemption automatically from the records it holds, so make sure your tax address is updated on the portal in time. If it does not appear on your first bill, ask for it at your Finanças office. Each household can use this exemption at most twice in a lifetime. Councils may vote to extend it by two more years, so check your council's decision.

The permanent low-income exemption. If your household's gross income is low and your home has a modest VPT, you pay no IMI on your main home for as long as you qualify. The limits are set as multiples of the annual social support index (IAS, Indexante dos Apoios Sociais). Income must not exceed 2.3 times the annual IAS, and the total VPT of everything the household owns must not exceed 10 times the annual IAS.

With the 2026 IAS of €537.13, the limits are about €17,296 of gross household income and €75,198 of total VPT. Finanças applies this exemption automatically each year from your IRS return. You must have filed your IRS on time to get it.

The family deduction (IMI familiar). Councils may vote a fixed deduction from the IMI on your main home if you have dependants. The amounts are €30 for one dependant, €70 for two, and €140 for three or more. It only applies where your council has voted it in for the year, and Finanças applies it automatically.

Finanças reads your household composition as registered on 31 December of the tax year. If the deduction does not appear on your bill, check the household (agregado familiar) details in your portal account first. An out-of-date dependant record is the most common cause.

Other reliefs exist for specific cases. Homes built or renovated for the rental market can get a three-year exemption with council approval, extendable by two years. Councils can cut the rate on energy-efficient buildings and on classified heritage properties. Ask your council or a certified accountant (contabilista certificado) if you think one applies.

AIMI on larger holdings

AIMI (Adicional ao IMI) is a surcharge on people who hold a lot of residential property. It is charged on the combined VPT of all the homes and building plots you own on 1 January each year. Shops, offices, factories, and rural land are left out.

For individuals:

  • The first €600,000 of combined VPT is free of AIMI.
  • You pay 0.7% on the slice from €600,000 to €1 million.
  • You pay 1% on the slice from €1 million to €2 million.
  • You pay 1.5% on anything above €2 million.

Married couples and unmarried partners can opt to be assessed jointly. They then share a combined allowance of €1.2 million. You make the option on the Portal das Finanças between 1 April and 31 May, and it stays in force until you cancel it.

Companies pay a flat 0.4% with no allowance. If a company's property is used by its shareholders or directors, the individual rates apply to that property instead. Entities based in listed tax havens pay 7.5%.

AIMI is paid in one instalment in September. Finanças sends the note by the end of August. The allowance applies to non-residents in the same way. Three flats with a VPT of €250,000 each add up to €750,000, so a non-resident investor can cross the line without noticing.

If you pay late

Missing an IMI deadline has three consequences.

  1. The remaining instalments fall due at once. The law says that if you miss one instalment, the whole outstanding balance becomes payable immediately.
  2. Interest runs from the day after the deadline. The late-payment interest rate on tax debts for 2026 is 7.221% a year.
  3. If you still do not pay, Finanças opens an enforcement case (execução fiscal), which adds costs and can end in a charge on the property or your bank account.

If you have missed a deadline, log in to the portal, find the debt under your account (Situação fiscal, then Dívidas), and generate a new payment reference. Pay it as soon as you can. Interest stops the day you pay.

If the VPT or the bill is wrong

Wrong VPT. If the VPT looks too high, for example because your building has aged past a coefficient band or the floor area is wrong, you can ask Finanças for a new valuation. You do this by filing a Modelo 1 IMI declaration on the portal or at a Finanças office. Finanças then reassesses the property. You can ask once every three years, and a lower VPT carries into the next bill.

Be careful: a new valuation can go up as well as down. Do not ask for one after a renovation or if your area has improved. Use the VPT simulator on the portal first.

Wrong bill. If the bill itself is wrong (wrong owner, wrong council rate, wrong number of instalments), file a complaint (reclamação graciosa) through the portal within 120 days of the notification. If Finanças rejects it, you can take the case to the tax court, which is only worth doing for large amounts.

Mistakes to avoid

  • Assuming the bill will find you. The notification goes to the address and email on your tax file. If they are stale, you miss the deadline anyway.
  • Not registering your tax address at your new home. The three-year exemption, the low-income exemption, and the family deduction all depend on the property being your registered permanent home.
  • Confusing IMI with IMT. IMT is the one-off tax you pay when you buy. IMI is the annual tax you pay for owning. Different rates, different calendar.
  • Forgetting AIMI as a multi-property owner. Add up your VPTs against the €600,000 line every January, whether or not you live in Portugal.
  • Not budgeting for a post-renovation VPT. Major works trigger a reassessment and a higher bill.
  • Leaving IMI out of your buying maths. Treat the annual IMI, and any AIMI, as a running cost alongside the condominium fees and insurance.

Sources

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

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