Portugal Azores VAT cut to 16% July 2021

The Portuguese Azores has cut its standard Value Added Tax rate from 18% to 16% from July 1, 2021.

The regional government, the PSD/CDS-PP/PPM coalition, states that, “implementing one of the programmatic guidelines” of the current Azorean government, the “VAT rate will be 30% lower than the normal national rate of 23%, the level maximum legally permitted”.

In summary, from July 1, VAT rates in the Azores will be 4%, 9% and 16%, the reduced, intermediate and standard rates, respectively.

Cited in the communiqué, the regional secretary for Finance, Planning and Public Administration, Joaquim Bastos e Silva, says that the tax reduction will be a “significant lever for the regional economy, for its companies and for families, at a particularly difficult time, pandemic context of COVID-19.”