In 2022, tax burden increased 14.9% in nominal terms, attaining 87.1 billion euros, corresponding to 36.4% of GDP (35.3% in the previous year). Considering 2021, last year with data available for the European Union (EU27) and excluding taxes received by EU institutions, Portugal continued to register a lower tax burden (35.1%) than the EU27 average (40.5%).

Direct tax revenue increased by 24.1%, mainly reflecting the 12.8% increase in personal income tax (IRS) revenue. Social contributions rose 10.2%, benefiting from the growth of paid employment and from the increase of the minimum wage. Revenues from corporate income tax (IRC) rose by 59.6%, benefiting from the more favourable behaviour of economic activity in 2022.

Indirect taxes grew of 12.2%, with the proceeds from value added tax rising by 18.1% (+13.7%, in 2021), standing out also the rise in revenue from real estate transfer tax collected by Local Government (+26.3%). There were also increases from excise duties on tobacco (+8.4%), stamp tax (+6.6%) and tax on motor vehicle sales (+5.3%).

The tax on petroleum and energy products was the only main tax to see its revenue fall (-21.3%), as a result of the measures implemented by the Government to mitigate the increase in fuel prices.

In 2020, the most recent year with detailed information for its compilation, the VAT gap was estimated at 267 million euro, corresponding to 1.6% of the VAT revenue of the year, 0.7 p.p. less than that observed in 2019.