From the pension bonus to the IRS relief: The favorite news of the week

• Government announces supplement for pensioners

The Prime Minister announced an extraordinary supplement for pensioners who receive up to EUR 1,611 and a tax relief up to the sixth tier of the IRS.

The announcement was made by Luís Montenegro in opening the debate in Parliament on the motion of censure of the Aquis to the Government, saying that the two measures will be implemented in the Council of Ministers next week.

“The first: to gradually supplement pensioners by EUR 1,611,13, which represents a value of around EUR 400 million that will be paid together with the December pension,” he said.

• Mercadona opens another supermarket and arrives to new district

Mercadona announced this Thursday that it opened its first store in Vila Real, which marks the arrival to another national district. With this opening, the Spanish supermarket brand reaches store number 76 in Portugal.

“ Located in Rua das Camélias, number 2, in Vila Real, this opening represents an important step in the expansion of the brand in Portugal, which continues to strengthen its presence with its ‘Chiefs’ (clients)”, can be read in a statement to which News to Minuto had access. 

This new area, it refers to, “has a team of 74 workers with stable, quality and endless contracts, since day one, it has required an investment of more than 9.5 million euros in its construction”.

• “ We work more hours and produce less value in each of them”

Portugal works more hours than the average of the European Union (EU), but continues to produce less value and this is a “structural problem” that “has long been identified”, says Taguspark CEO Eduardo Baptista Correia. 

In a written interview with News to Minutes, Eduardo Baptista Correia underlined the importance of Taguspark in the business fabric, highlighting that there “no company is alone”, and also tracing what will mark the future of the science and technology ecosystem. 

Still, the person responsible for Taguspark, a science and technology park located in Oeiras, believes that Portugal can go further and reveals what the key is: “putting the right people to work side by side”.

• More than a third of the service employees in Germany in teleworking

More than a third (35.1%) of all employees in the service sector in Germany was on telework at least part of the time in August, according to a survey by the German institute Ifo.

According to the latest Ifo Business Survey, today released, in the German economy as a whole, 24.9% of employees in Germany worked from home in August.

“For years, we have not seen significant changes in the proportion of employees working from home – whether in general or by sector,” says Ifo’s Jean Victor Alipour.

• November Salary will be more filled with IRS relief: For who?

On Tuesday, the government announced a reduction in the IRS by the sixth step of EUR 400 million to support the middle class. However, this relief should be felt by all taxpayers who pay this tax due to the progress of the IRS. 

“ This decline covers, in practice, all IRS taxpayers, even those who are above incomes, given the progressivity of the tax,” explained Prime Minister Luís Montenegro in Parliament on Tuesday. 

In addition, Montenegro also clarified that “this tax relief will already be felt with a reduction in the retentions of the source in November, the salary and the Christmas allowance”.