A record 2,847 amendments to the 2027 budget. Chega opposes a higher pension age, IL wants lower tax on rent
By 21:30 on 6 November, the parties had tabled 2,847 amendments to the 2027 state budget, more than ever before; a year ago there were just over 2,100. Chega tabled the most (711), followed by the PCP (650), Livre (504), the BE (368), the PS (195), JPP (164), PAN (125), the governing PSD and CDS (81) and IL (50) (ECO). The amendments will now be voted on article by article, and the final vote on the budget is on 24 November.
The PSD and CDS, the parties behind the government, propose extending the state mortgage guarantee for buyers under 35 to people building their own home, and writing into the budget that the one-off pension top-up will be paid in 2027 as well, if public finances allow (ECO). Another of their amendments would scrap the early repayment fee on variable-rate mortgages until the end of 2027 (our article).
The Socialists (PS) want to cut ISP, the fuel tax, by the equivalent of lowering VAT on fuel from 23% to 13%, and to pay for it by dropping the cut in IRC, the corporate income tax. The PS also proposes zero VAT on a basic food basket for three months from 1 January, funded by abolishing the tax break for landlords who let at an "affordable" rent of up to €2,300 a month (Jornal de Negócios).
Chega wants to stop the pension age rising in 2027 (in 2026 it is 66 years and 9 months), cut VAT on fuel, give civil servants a meal card and bring back the deduction of mortgage interest from IRS, the personal income tax (Observador).
The Liberal Initiative (IL) proposes exempting from IRS, for five years, income from letting homes that have stood empty for a long time; cutting the tax on rent, down to zero for long contracts; abolishing AIMI, the additional tax on expensive property; reworking Porta 65 Jovem, the rent support scheme for young tenants; and lowering ISP to the EU average (Jornal Económico).
The amendments on their own change nothing: only those passed by a majority will go into the budget. The finance minister, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, promised to work out what the PS proposals would cost and criticised the parties for tabling amendments "as if it were a competition".
