If an individual does not pay the IMT on the purchase of a house, the tax is paid immediately and, if collection is not achieved, the seizure of the property may proceed in a few months.
In the case of the six dams sold by EDP for 2.2 billion euros, the IMT due (almost 100 million) was not paid in 2020 and only now, five years later, is its collection expected, thanks to a decision by the Public Prosecutor’s Office that concluded that the State has to receive 335.2 million euros in taxes (IMT, IRC and stamp duty), plus late payment interest.
According to official data, more than three million Portuguese people have active tax debts, many of small amounts that, over time, grew due to interest and fines.
The Tax Authority is ruthless with these debtors: at the end of 2024, 23.4 million tax enforcement processes were underway in the country, the overwhelming majority relating to natural persons and small companies.
The “large debtors” – around 21,500 taxpayers, including companies and some millionaires – accumulated debts of 16.9 billion euros, representing 62% of the total registered tax debt. However, a large part of this amount is considered uncollectible or its collection is suspended due to litigation that never ends.
This emblematic case exposes how large companies manage to pay few taxes, exploiting legal contradictions and tax exemptions.
In the dam business, EDP, advised by law firms specializing in “fiscal engineering” and in exempting companies from criminal liability through formal legal opinions that provide legal coverage for more than dubious operations, took advantage of fiscal neutrality provisions designed for restructuring, falsely applying them to a commercial sale. I don’t understand why it’s not a crime…
There is also the usual complicity of political power. The minister in charge at the time, Matos Fernandes, from the PS government, approved this tax “escape”, publicly saying that it was legal, while the Tax Authority handed the case over to the Public Ministry and did nothing.
The current government follows the same pattern: in the face of new uncertainty in legal taxation, it has now proposed changes to the IMI Code relating to dams, wind farms and photovoltaic plants which, instead of defending the public interest, eliminate all taxes payable for them – which has been dubbed “true jackpot for EDP and concessionaires” by the Terra de Miranda Cultural Movement.
The Portuguese legislative tangle has hundreds of benefits, exceptions and special regimes. However, according to the Tax Authority, only 20 large companies captured 518 million euros in tax benefits in a single year, 16.5% of the national total.
At the top of the beneficiaries is the automotive industry and, in second place, EDP, with around 49 million euros in a year – more than a quarter of the benefits given to companies in the PSI-20 index.
This is the same EDP that can, in the company of French company Engie, responsible for the missing IMT, appeal the Public Ministry’s decision. At the very least, it would be possible to postpone the payment of the 335 million in debt for many more years. And, perhaps, they will never pay… an amnesty may even emerge!
And I’m not even talking about the mistake of this country having energy infrastructures owned by private foreign companies! In times of war, it’s really crazy!
Journalist