Buying property in Portugal through a company: IMT, stamp duty, IMI and AIMI in 2026

The 2026 tables come from Lei 73-A/2025. In the other-housing table the 8% band ends at €633,931, not €660,982, as the AT’s consolidated text confirms.

Stamp duty under verba 1.1 of the Stamp Duty Table. IMT base under art. 12.º(1) CIMT; IMI rates under art. 112.º CIMI; AIMI rates under art. 135.º-F CIMI.

The VPT (valor patrimonial tributário) is the tax value on the caderneta predial, in Lisbon typically well below the price. A loan adds its own stamp duty, 0.6% for five years or more plus 4% on interest: €1,800 on €300,000 over 25 years. A mortgage signed with the loan pays nothing extra.

Bands and cliffs. Within the bands, the value up to the top of the last full band is taxed at that band’s published average rate and the excess at the next marginal rate (art. 17.º(3) CIMT). Above them, 6% and 7.5% apply to the whole value. One euro over €1,150,853 therefore costs about €17,263 in every housing table.

A company is always on the other-housing table for residential property: the own-home table and the young-buyer exemption are for individuals. A Portuguese Lda buying a €500,000 flat pays €27,300.03, what a resident individual pays for a second home.

Buying to resell is exempt for a buyer registered in that activity (art. 7.º(1) CIMT). Unless the buyer shows resales in each of the two previous years, the IMT is still paid and is refunded on request after a resale within a year (art. 7.º(2) to (4) CIMT). The exemption lapses if the property is not resold within one year (art. 11.º(5) CIMT), not the three years older guides quote (see the AT’s text). Rehabilitation is open to companies: property over 30 years old or in a rehabilitation area can be bought free of IMT if works start within three years (art. 45.º(2)(b) EBF), with three years without IMI after completion (art. 45.º(2)(a) EBF).

Moving a flat you already own into your company is a new purchase. A contribution to capital is an IMT event (art. 2.º(5)(e) CIMT), and so is the company handing it to shareholders on liquidation (art. 2.º(5)(f) CIMT). Choose the owner before the deed.

The AT refunds the difference from the normal rates on request (art. 17.º(11) CIMT and art. 17.º(12) CIMT). On a €500,000 flat that is €10,199.97 down to the other-housing table, or €11,263.31 if the buyer moves in and it becomes an own home. That second figure rests on our reading, which the AT has not confirmed.

Foreign companies. The text speaks of a non-resident acquirer and, unlike the blacklist rule (art. 17.º(7) CIMT), does not distinguish individuals. On the wording of the law, a UK limited company buying a Lisbon flat pays 7.5%, with only the moderate-rent let as a way back. The AT has published no guidance yet. A Portuguese Lda is resident, so it pays the ordinary table unless it is controlled from a listed jurisdiction.

On a €250,000 VPT, a Dubai company pays €37,500 a year in IMI and AIMI, plus about €4,167 of tax on deemed rent if the flat stands empty. The rest of what the UAE listing costs is in our comparison of Portugal, Spain and the UAE.

The Lda’s IMT: €330,539 × 4.1578% = €13,743.15, plus €169,461 × 8% = €13,556.88. The deduction shortcut gives €27,300.11. IMI over €500 is paid in three instalments.

The Lda saves €10,200 at purchase against both non-resident buyers, then pays €1,000 a year of AIMI that the individual does not, or €1,750 if the family uses the flat. The same €500,000 as an office costs every buyer 6.5% IMT (€32,500), except one in or controlled from a listed jurisdiction, and carries no AIMI.

Rates. Rustic property pays 0.8% of the VPT (art. 112.º(1)(a) CIMI); urban property between 0.3% and 0.45%, set yearly by the municipality (art. 112.º(5) CIMI), or up to 0.5% in municipalities under a financial-support programme (art. 112.º(18) CIMI). Lisbon has kept the 0.3% legal minimum in recent years, as reported.

Instalments (art. 120.º(1) CIMI): up to €100, May; up to €500, May and November; above that, May, August and November. In 2026 the May instalment moved to 1 June. Every other dated deadline is in our reporting calendar.

The family reduction (art. 112.º-A CIMI) and the own-home exemption (art. 46.º EBF) are for individuals. For a company, IMI is a deductible cost under art. 23.º CIRC.

The base is housing and land for construction. Commercial, industrial, services and “other” urban property is excluded (art. 135.º-B(2) CIMI), and rustic land is not urban. Offices, shops and warehouses pay no AIMI.

The individual’s €1m and €2m thresholds are measured on the VPT before the allowance (art. 135.º-F(2) CIMI and art. 135.º-F(3) CIMI): €1.5m of housing VPT costs €7,800 a year, €900,000 costs €2,100.

The trap is the holiday flat in the Lda. Company housing used personally by a shareholder, a manager, or their spouses, ascendants or descendants is taxed at the individual rates with no allowance, and must be listed in the IRC return annex (art. 135.º-F(7) CIMI). On a €250,000 VPT that is €1,750 a year, against €0 if you owned the flat personally and nothing else. The benefit in kind is a separate question.

Acquiring shares counts as a transfer of the property when three conditions meet (art. 2.º(2)(d) CIMT): more than half the company’s assets are Portuguese property, at book value or VPT if higher; that property is not used directly in an agricultural, industrial or commercial activity, property dealing excluded; and one shareholder ends up with at least 75%, or only two spouses or partners remain. Listed companies are outside (art. 2.º(7) CIMT). The base is the VPT in proportion to the holding, or the balance-sheet value if higher (art. 12.º(4) CIMT, rule 19.ª).

The rate is an open point. Article 17 has no line for share deals. Practice applies the rate for the property behind the shares; some read the 6.5% for “other acquisitions”. We have seen no AT ruling, and stamp duty on such a deal is equally unconfirmed. Price both readings.

The seller’s side. Portugal taxes non-residents’ gains on shares in Portuguese companies (art. 4.º(3)(b) CIRC) and in foreign entities deriving over half their value from Portuguese property (art. 4.º(3)(f) CIRC), subject to treaties:

Gains on the property itself are taxable in Portugal under every treaty listed. The holding regime’s exemption for gains on shares also switches off for property-rich companies: see the Portuguese holding regime.

Individuals. The 25% residential rate falls by 10 to 20 points for leases of five years or more (art. 72.º(3) to (5) CIRS). EU and EEA residents may opt for the resident rates on the 28% non-residential rent (art. 72.º(15) CIRS); the text does not list the 25% residential rate. On a sale, non-residents are taxed on half the gain at the progressive rates, set by reference to their worldwide income (art. 22.º(3)(a) CIRS). For sales from 2026 to 2029, gains on housing reinvested in Portuguese housing let at moderate rents are excluded, with a five-year lock-in (art. 10.º(7) CIRS).

A Portuguese Lda. Rent is part of profit (art. 3.º(1)(a) CIRC), at 19% in 2026, 18% in 2027 and 17% from 2028. The 15% SME rate on the first €50,000 needs an economic activity carried on as the main activity (art. 87.º(2) CIRC); whether one let flat qualifies is our reading, so we model both rates. Only the building is depreciated: where the deed does not split the price, land is taken as 25% (article 10(3) of Decreto Regulamentar 25/2009). The rate is typically around 2% a year on the building share, but a second-hand building uses its expected remaining life (article 5(2)(a) of the same decree). Profit then has to reach you: see paying yourself from a Portuguese company and the surcharges in our corporate tax guide.

A foreign company without a permanent establishment is taxed at 25% on Portuguese rent and gains (art. 4.º(3)(a) CIRC). It must appoint a tax representative unless resident in the EU, or the EEA with equivalent cooperation (art. 126.º(1) and (2) CIRC), and files a Modelo 22 by the end of May for rent and within 30 days of a sale (art. 120.º(5)(a) and (b) CIRC). It needs a Portuguese NIF before the purchase. Whether the half-gain rule of the IRS carries over to it is not settled; we check it on the facts.

In short, a company wins where there are costs to deduct and lettings to run. The individual wins on gains, on the AIMI allowance and on simplicity. A company holding a home nobody rents pays AIMI from the first euro and has little income to set its costs against.

Short lets. Lei 56/2023 restricted new local-accommodation registrations; Decreto-Lei 76/2024 reversed several of those rules and handed powers to municipalities, so check the municipality first. In pressure zones, IMI on local accommodation can be raised by up to 100% where the municipality adopts it (art. 112.º(19)(a) CIMI).

The 2027 budget is a proposal. According to the OCC’s analysis, it would raise the IMT bands by 2.3%, with the 8% band of the other-housing table ending at €648,511, and leave the rates alone. As reported, it does not change IMI, AIMI or stamp duty rates. The calculator uses the 2026 law.

Open on 30 October 2026: the 7.5% for foreign companies; the rate and stamp duty on share deals; the own-home refund; the SME rate for a letting company; the half-gain rule for foreign companies; the 2027 budget. We will update this page.