Portugal Property Taxes: IMI, IMT, Stamp Duty for Americans, Britons

Buying a home in Portugal brings IMT and stamp duty once, paid by the buyer around the purchase, and then IMI every year for as long as you own it. A fourth tax, AIMI, applies only to larger holdings of urban property. A buyer who is not tax resident in Portugal faces a flat 7.5% IMT on housing from May 2026, with exceptions listed below.

This guide gives what the Portuguese tax code and the Portal das Finanças say about these taxes, on the day we read them. It is not tax advice. The rates are quoted as published and we have not worked out any amount for you; the tax authority’s own assessment is what you will actually pay. The steps of a purchase, from offer to deed, are in our guide to buying property in Portugal as a foreigner. If you plan to rent first, start with our guide to renting a home in Portugal.

What taxes does a foreign buyer pay when buying a home in Portugal?

Four taxes appear in the pages we read.

IMT is owed by the buyer, as article 4 of the IMT Code states, with listed exceptions for partitions, exchanges and similar cases. The Stamp Duty Code says that for the acts in item 1.1 of its General Table, the taxpayers are the buyers of the property.

How does the IMT work and what are the rates?

IMT is charged on the greater of two values. Article 12 says it falls “sobre o valor constante do acto ou do contrato ou sobre o valor patrimonial tributário dos imóveis, consoante o que for maior”: on the value stated in the deed or contract, or on the property’s tax value (valor patrimonial tributário, the value in the property register), whichever is higher.

Article 17 of the IMT Code sets the rates. The Portal das Finanças page and the consolidated code on the Diário da República carry the same figures, and the bracket limits are those set by Lei 73-A/2025 of 30 December 2025, in force from 1 January 2026 according to the Diário da República. We reproduce them as published, with the decimal point in place of the Portuguese comma.

Housing that will be your own permanent home (article 17, paragraph 1, point a), except purchases covered by point b, described below the next table:

Housing that is not your own permanent home (point c), which is the table a second-home or holiday-home buyer looks at:

Point b has a third table, for permanent-home purchases covered by paragraphs 2 to 5 of article 9 (the young-buyer regime described below) whose value exceeds the first bracket: 0 up to 330,539; 8 above that and up to 660,982; 6 (single rate) up to 1,150,853; 7.5 (single rate) above.

Other purchases have flat rates: 5% for rural property (point d) and 6.5% for other urban property and other purchases for payment (point e).

How the brackets work is set by paragraph 3 of article 17: when the value exceeds the first bracket, it is split into two parts. One equals the upper limit of the largest bracket that fits in it, and the average rate of that bracket applies to this part. The other is the excess, taxed at the marginal rate of the next bracket up. Read the paragraph on the page before you estimate anything.

What changed for non-resident buyers in 2026?

Paragraph 10 of article 17 was added by Decree-Law 97/2026 of 20 May 2026. The consolidated code on the Diário da República lists it as in force from 25 May 2026. It says the rate is always 7.5% on the purchase of an urban property or unit “destinado exclusivamente a habitação” (intended exclusively for housing), with no exemption or reduction, whenever the buyer is a non-resident, except where:

• the buyer has been considered a tax resident in Portugal under article 16 of the personal income tax code (IRS), or
• the buyer becomes a tax resident under that article within two years of the date of purchase, or
• the property is intended for rental as housing, at a monthly rent that does not exceed the limits in paragraphs 2 and 3 of article 2 of the same decree-law, within six months of purchase, and is let for at least 36 months, consecutive or not, in the first five years.

For the second and third exceptions, the buyer pays at purchase and then asks the tax authority to cancel the difference between the tax paid and what the normal brackets would have produced. Paragraph 12 sets six months for that request, counted from the date you become resident or from the date of the lease, respectively.

Three points we cannot settle from the pages we read. Article 17 does not define “non-resident” itself; it points to article 16 of the IRS code, which we did not read for this guide. The decree-law’s own text, as we read it, gives no separate entry-into-force article; the date above comes from the consolidated code. And the rental limits come from the decree-law, whose article 2 refers to 2.5 times the 2026 monthly minimum wage and says the limits may be updated by order. Check the current figures before you rely on the third exception. Our renting guide covers leases, not these limits.

Paragraph 4 of article 17 sets a rate of 10% with no exemption for buyers with a tax domicile in a listed low-tax country, territory or region, and for entities controlled by one; paragraph 7 says paragraph 4 does not apply when the buyer is an individual. The pages do not distinguish by nationality: what counts is tax residence and tax domicile, not whether you are American or British.

What are the IMT exemptions for housing?

Article 9 of the IMT Code lists two for housing that will be a permanent home:

• Paragraph 1: acquisitions whose taxable value does not exceed the maximum of the first bracket in point a of article 17 are exempt.
• Paragraph 2: the first purchase of a permanent home is exempt up to the maximum of the first bracket of point b, for buyers aged 35 or under on the date of transfer who are not counted as dependents for IRS purposes in the year. Paragraph 3 excludes anyone who owns a residential urban property on the transfer date or at any time in the previous three years.

Paragraph 10 of article 17, above, says no exemption or reduction applies to a non-resident buyer of housing unless one of the three exceptions is met.

How much is the stamp duty on a purchase?

The General Table of Stamp Duty lists, under item 1.1, the acquisition for payment or by donation of ownership of property, or of parts of that right, and gives the rate as 0.8% “sobre o valor” (on the value). Article 2 of the Stamp Duty Code makes the buyer the taxpayer for item 1.1. Article 23 says its assessment follows the IMT Code’s rules, and article 41 says it is paid by the persons named in article 23. Where IMT is assessed together with stamp duty, paragraph 8 of article 36 of the IMT Code says payment is due within the deadline stated in the notification.

This guide covers stamp duty on the purchase only. Stamp duty on a mortgage, on a lease or on an inheritance is separate and sits under other items of the table.

When must the IMT be paid, and how?

The assessment is the buyer’s initiative. Article 19 says you file an official-model declaration at any tax office or electronically, and that it must also be filed before the transfer when you claim an exemption. Article 22 says the assessment comes before the act that transfers the property, and lapses if the act does not take place within two years.

Article 36 sets the payment deadline. Paragraph 1, as worded by Decree-Law 97/2026, says IMT must be paid on the day of the assessment or in the following 30 days, “sob pena de esta ficar sem efeito” (otherwise the assessment lapses). If the deed is signed abroad, paragraph 2 says payment is due during the following month.

What is IMI and who pays it each year?

IMI falls on the tax value of rural and urban property in Portugal, and its revenue goes to the municipality where the property stands (article 1). Article 8 makes the owner on 31 December of the year the taxpayer. The tax is assessed each year in February and April of the following year (article 113), and no assessment is made when the amount is under 10 euros.

The rates in article 112 are:

The Portal das Finanças page “Consultar Taxas IMI” repeats this range and says the rate can go up to 0.5% in municipalities in the circumstances of paragraph 18. It lets you choose a year and district to see each municipality’s rate. A municipality that does not notify the tax authority by 31 December gets the minimum urban rate (paragraph 14).

The article also lets municipalities adjust the urban rate within limits: a reduction of up to 20% for rented properties in defined areas, an increase of up to 30% for degraded properties, and, in pressure zones, an increase of up to 100% for local accommodation and up to 25% for housing that is neither let nor the owner’s permanent home. Article 112-A lets a municipality cut the IMI on a permanent home by a fixed amount: 30 euros with one dependent, 70 with two, 140 with three or more. The rate is tripled each year for urban properties vacant for more than a year and for ruins.

Paragraph 4 of article 112 sets a 7.5% rate for properties of taxpayers domiciled in a listed low-tax jurisdiction, and paragraph 17 says that rate does not apply to properties owned by individuals. The Portal das Finanças page names the list as the one approved by Portaria 150/2004 of 13 February with later updates; we did not read the list. The pages we read set no other special IMI rate for non-resident individuals.

When is IMI paid?

Article 119 says the tax authority sends the payment document by the end of the month before payment, and that you can ask any tax office for a second copy if it does not arrive. Article 120 sets the instalments by the amount due:

The article adds that spouses or de facto partners get the instalment rules computed on the total tax, even for jointly owned property, for a home used as their permanent residence and fixed as their tax domicile. Missing one instalment makes the rest due at once (paragraph 4).

You need a Portuguese tax number before you can own property. Our guide to the Portuguese NIF lists owning real estate in Portugal among the examples of a tax relationship that can trigger the fiscal representative rule for people living outside the EU.

Is there an IMI exemption for a first home?

Article 46 of the Tax Benefits Statute (Estatuto dos Benefícios Fiscais) exempts, for a limited period, urban housing bought for payment and used as the permanent residence of the owner or the household. The page lists these conditions:

• gross household income in the previous year of no more than 153,300 euros
• use as the permanent home within six months of the purchase, unless the delay is not the owner’s fault; the home counts as the permanent residence if the tax domicile is fixed there (paragraph 9)
• an exemption period of three years for urban property whose tax value does not exceed 125,000 euros, which the municipal assembly can extend by two years (paragraph 5)

For a purchase for payment the exemption is automatic, based on the data the tax authority has; in other cases it is recognized on a documented request to the head of the local tax office (paragraph 6). The request is due within 60 days after the six-month period (paragraph 1). The exemption can be granted twice to the same taxpayer or household (paragraph 11), and it does not apply to buyers domiciled in a listed low-tax jurisdiction (paragraph 10). Paragraph 13 says emigrants as defined in Decree-Law 323/95 can benefit from it, without the deadline for moving in.

Your own situation depends on the tax value of the property and on your household income, so check both with the tax office.

What is AIMI and does it apply to me?

AIMI is an additional tax on top of IMI. Article 135-A makes taxpayers of individuals and companies that own, have a usufruct of, or hold a surface right on urban property in Portugal, as of 1 January of the year. It falls on the sum of the tax values of the urban properties you hold (135-B), and the following apply:

• Deduction: 600,000 euros for an individual (135-C). Married couples or de facto partners can choose joint taxation, doubling the deduction (135-D); couples who do not opt for joint taxation can declare which properties each owns, on the Portal das Finanças, from 1 April to 31 May (135-D, paragraph 4).
• Rates (135-F): 0.7% for individuals and undivided estates, 0.4% for companies; for an individual’s taxable value above 1,000,000 and up to 2,000,000 euros, a marginal rate of 1%; above 2,000,000 euros, a marginal rate of 1.5%; both thresholds are doubled under joint taxation (135-F). Read the article before you apply them.
• Exclusions: properties classified as commercial, industrial or services, and “other” (135-B).
• Timing: assessed in June, paid in September (135-G and 135-H).

AIMI applies to you only if the combined tax value of your urban property in Portugal is large enough to matter; the pages give the deduction, not a verdict on your holdings.

What this guide does not cover

Rental income tax, capital gains when you sell, the tax on a mortgage and inheritance and gift tax are separate subjects, each with its own pages. If you are a U.S. citizen, the question of what Portugal-based property means for your U.S. return is in our guide on U.S. taxes from Portugal. A broader view of costs in the first twelve months is in your first year in Portugal.

More guides on this site: Portuguese tax residence.

Date of the information

The latest change we found to the IMT Code is Decree-Law 97/2026 of 20 May 2026, which added paragraph 10 to article 17 (the 7.5% rule for non-residents) and reworded article 36 (the 30-day payment term). The consolidated code on the Diário da República lists it as the most recent amendment, in force from 25 May 2026. The bracket limits come from Lei 73-A/2025 of 30 December 2025. A correction notice to the decree-law, Declaração de Retificação 26/2026/1 of 13 July 2026, amends other articles and not the IMT Code. The IMI rules we read were last changed by Lei 56/2023 of 6 October 2023 (IMI Code) and Lei 82/2023 of 29 December 2023 (Tax Benefits Statute), the AIMI rates by Lei 71/2018 of 31 December 2018. This guide’s update date, 20 May 2026, is the date of the decree-law. Tables and deadlines can change with each State budget, so check the Portal das Finanças before you rely on a figure.

Official pages read for this guide: the consolidated IMI and IMT Codes on the Diário da República and on the Portal das Finanças (articles 4, 9, 12, 17, 19, 22 and 36 of the IMT Code; articles 8, 112, 112-A, 113, 119, 120 and 135-A to 135-H of the IMI Code), the Stamp Duty Code articles 2, 23 and 41 and its General Table, article 46 of the Tax Benefits Statute, the Portal das Finanças page on IMI rates by municipality, Decree-Law 97/2026 and Declaração de Retificação 26/2026/1 on the Diário da República. All were read on 18 October 2026.