juros indemnizatórios
Published 5 November 2026, 22:39
juros indemnizatórios (interest paid to you for the state's delay)
Interest that the state pays to a person, not the other way round. Article 43 of the Lei Geral Tributária lists the cases in which it is due; the first on the list is when the tax authority has missed the legal deadline for a tax refund. The rate equals the statutory interest rate, which has been fixed at 4% a year by Portaria n.º 291/2003 since 2003.
Where you come across it. A late IRS refund, a cancelled assessment, a recalculation following a request for review.
For a return filed between 1 April and 30 June, the state must pay the refund by 31 August of that year (articles 96 and 97 of the Código do IRS). If it has not arrived by then, from 1 September it is overdue, not "still being processed". Not to be confused with juros de mora: those, by contrast, are charged to a person for a debt to the state, and their rate is higher.