Deco Proteste warns that owners can pay more IMI

A editor Deco Proteste warned today that some owners may be paying more IMI than they should, when the property's equity value does not reflect the evolution of certain factors used in the calculation of taxes.

“ The value of the IMI is calculated based on the tax assets value (VPT) of the property, but varies from municipality to municipality. However, some of the elements used in this calculation are not automatically updated by the Tax Authority, which means that the tax collected may still be higher than would result from a new assessment,” the company explains in a statement.

The vetustez coefficient, associated with the age of the property, and which suffers several changes over time, is one of the examples, underlines.

Thus, “the tax assets value of real estate, which is the basis for the calculation of the IMI, does not always reflect the evolution of factors such as the age of the property or the location coefficient”, says Deco Proteste Editors, a company based on quotas that has as partners the Luxembourg company Euroconsumers and the Portuguese Association for Consumer Protection – Deco.

The company states that “the only way to understand if there is a margin for tax reduction is to make a simulation”.

In the statement, the company states that an online IMI simulator developed by it, released on a platform called “Simple Taxes”, allows “identifying possible savings opportunities”, which can “check whether they are paying the fair value of IMI and identify opportunities to save already in 2027”.

The company states that, through this free simulator, owners “can verify that any re-evaluation of the property can result in a reduction in the amount to be paid”.

The publisher “recommends, however, that consumers do not proceed with the request for reassessment without first confirming that it is favourable to them”, since “a new assessment can also result in an increase in the value of tax assets and, consequently, of tax”.

In addition, it states that the request for re-evaluation on the initiative of the owner “can, as a rule, only be made every three years, and therefore a less weighted request may bind the consumer to a higher value for the following three years”.

“For those who identify a savings opportunity, the end of 2026 is an important date. When submitting the request for reassessment by 31 December, and if it results in a reduction in the tax liability value, the owner may benefit from a lower IMI by 2027. Savings will have no impact on the last instalment of this year, but it may reflect on the tax payable next”, he explains.

The alert appears before the approach of November, in which some owners will have to pay the last instalment of the IMI.

When the IMI exceeds EUR 500, the amount is divided into three instalments, one to be delivered in May, the other in August and the other in November.

The IMI focuses on the property tax value of the buildings, with a single rate of 0.8% in the case of rustic buildings (land) and a rate ranging between 0.3% and 0.45% on the urban buildings (construction and construction land).

Although the tax is calculated and charged by the Tax and Customs Authority (AT), the IMI rates applied in each county are decided by the municipalities within those intervals.

The returned buildings for more than a year or in ruins located in urban pressure zones are subject to a higher IMI rate. In these situations, the rate is high to the decupum (it is ten times the normal rate).

For example, if the regular IMI is 0.4%, it is subject to a rate of 4%.

According to the IMI Code, if the property remains returned, this rate is in turn “increased in each subsequent year by another 20%”. In this example, the rate goes to 4.60% in the second year and 5.76% in the third.