By Andrea Hargraves 
Workers with mortgages can request from the beginning of the year to withhold a smaller amount each month from the IRS, but the perception by CASA and Deco is that this measure is underutilized.
“My feeling is that it’s not being used very often,” Paula Franco, president of the Association of Certified Public Accountants (OCC), told Lusa, acknowledging that this is mainly due to the fact that A recent and unknown measure Also, the fear that if they pay less per month, they might miss out on their refund or have to pay tax on the annual settlement.
“Effectively there is a notion that this [menor desconto mensal de imposto] It might lead to an IRS payment,” says Paola Franco Llosa.
An opinion shared by Natalia Nunes, Coordinator of the Financial Protection Office (GPF) for the Deco Association: “People are already organizing their lives in order to take advantage of repayment to pay annual expenses, for example, and they are afraid of losing repayment [por descontarem menos por mês] Or having to pay a tax at the end,” he explains.
In addition, people see that “the extra amount they will receive per month is insignificant,” stresses the GPF coordinator.
The head of the Portuguese Confederation of Commerce and Services (CCP), Vieira López, told Lusa that he had no indication from the business associations about the adhesion of the measure that the measure would or would not rise.
The state budget for 2023 (OE2023) allows, during that year, the IRS withholding tax for dependent workers to be reduced to a step rate directly lower than that corresponding to the monthly wage and family situation applicable to the relevant earner.”
For this, it is necessary that they fulfill, cumulatively, several conditions, namely that the credit is intended for the purchase of a permanent home of their own and that their total wage does not exceed 2,700 euros per month.
Fulfilling these requirements, the worker can ask the employer to immediately charge the tax authority withholding tax at the previous rate, which means, in practice (taking into account the applicable withholding schedules) that the person, without dependents and unmarried, who earns a total of 1,500 euros He can deduct 15.1% (226 euros) from the tax authority instead of 16.2% (243 euros), becoming Get an extra 17 euros per month.
In order for the employer to reduce the worker’s withholding tax, it is necessary that the latter be “before” the salary is paid, Explicit option to reduce withholding tax“by way of a statement accompanied by the essential elements of verification of the conditions referred to, as well as any other financially relevant information which occurred subsequently.”
This formulation prompted some people to try to clear doubts with Decaux about the necessary documents. “We recommend that, as a last resort, have a statement issued by the bank saying the person has this credit,” says Deco Chief.
According to the Ministry of Finance, “The taxable person who intends to use this option must inform the business owner that he intends to exercise this option, adding the elements he deems appropriate for this purpose.”
In the report accompanying the OE2023 proposal, the government states that the potential world beneficiaries of this measure are up to 1.4 million householdsIt is estimated that the cost of the procedure (loss of revenue due to withholding tax) could reach €250 million.