Running payroll in Portugal
Get payroll up and running in Portugal. We’ll help you set up payroll for your team in record time and take the entire compliance burden off your shoulders.
Pay your team in Portugal
Get payroll up and running in Portugal. We’ll help you set up payroll for your team in record time and take the entire compliance burden off your shoulders.
Portugal’s is a country’s strategic position in proximity to other EU markets make the small republic situated in the West of the Iberian Peninsula a very attractive destination for international companies looking to recruit remote workers. Especially in engineering and business, the country offers foreign recruiters a large talent pool to choose from.
Setting up payroll in Portugal
Before can start processing payroll in Portugal, employers need to register with several government bodies and authorities, including:
- Registration with the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) to receive an employer tax number
- Registration on Tax Office
- Registration on Social Security
- Registration on Compensation Funds
Employee registration:
- New hires should be registered with social security at least 24 hours before the offical start of their employment contract. The register is done online.
- Employers are obligated to take out a workplace accident insurance to cover their employees in case of accident at work.
- Payments to employees in Portugal can be made from a foreign bank account, but the tax payments need to be done by a local bank account.
Income tax and social security in Portugal
Tax withholding and reporting:
- Employers are obligated to withhold income tax from employee salaries on a monthly basis and submit the withheld amounts to the tax office until the 20th of the following month. Withheld income tax needs to be declared once a month via the so-called Declaração Mensal de Remunerações (short: DMR). The declaration must be filed online until the 10th of the following month.
- At the end of each year, employers further have to prepare an annual tax declaration informing the authorities about the amount of income tax withheld and paid during the previous year. The deadline is 20 January.
- The tax year runs from 1 January to 31 December. Individuals have to file a personal tax return by 30 June.
Social security contributions:
- Social security contributions must be made on a monthly basis. Employees are required to pay 11% of their monthly salary while the employer contributes 23.75% on behalf of the employee. The contributions cover several social security benefits, including unemployment, family, pension and sickness benefits.
- It is the employer’s responsibility to withhold the employee’s share of the contributions and pay them to Social Security together with their own contributions. Payments are due by the 20th of the month following the pay period. A separate social security DMR must be filed 10 days earlier, i.e. by the 10th. As for the tax DMR, the filing is done electronically. There further is an additional annual social security statement (Relatório Único) which should also include information on employee training, safety measures at work and more and which usually needs to be filed around April – exact due date varies.
- In addition to the standard social security contribution, employers are further required to pay 1% of the employee’s monthly salary into the Work Compensation Fund – due by the 20th of the month – as well as to take out accident insurance for their employees
Employment benefits
Employees in Portugal are entitled to various benefits. These include:
- On top of their normal salary, employees are entitled to an annual Christmas bonus (to be paid out until 15 December).
- On top of their normal salary, employees are entitled to an annual holiday bonus (to be paid out before the employees holiday period).
- Annual leave and public holidays: 22 working days, 13 public holidays .
- Maternity leave: 120 or 150 consecutive days.
- Paternity leave: 28 consecutive mandatory days.
- Marriage leave: 15 days.
- Sick leave: 3 days waiting period before sickness benefits are paid by Social Security – limited to 1,095 days; rates vary between 55% and 100%.
Payroll requirements
- Payroll in Portugal is processed on a monthly basis
- Payments to employees should be made no later than the last day of the month.
- It is mandatory to provide employees with a payslip at the end of each pay period.
- The payslip can either be issued in paper form or electronically and should detail the different parts of the employee’s remuneration as well as the tax and social security deductions made.
