Fiscal Rep, IMI Tax and Finanças

[joeysoap]

My fiscal reps sent me reminder in Sept about 2nd instalment of IMI Tax, and stated that when received he would acknowledge this and when the tax was paid at finanças and receipt optained he would forward copy to me (they did this in April)

They did acknowledge the funds but no further correspondence. I emailed 2 weeks ago to enquire about Finanças receipt and received a reply stating not to worry all my taxes have been paid. I emailed them back reqesting a copy of receipt as before and this is their reply

Thank you for your email.

We are having some issues with our new IT system. Its not allowing sending the receipts.

We hope this is sorted shortly.

Kind Regards,

xxxx xxxxx

Is there any way I can log on to the Finanças web site and check out if my tax has been paid (if there is much appreciated, but go easy on the instructions as I don't have any Portuguese so the site is likely to confuse me. (I still strugge with pronouncing Lagos and as for Ferragudo.....)

edited to spell finanças properly

[EMM]

We now pay ours through the multi banco. Our solicitor sends us a copy of the bill which has all the information needed.
Obviously easy for us as we always seem to be around when the bills are sent out.

[Aldo]

is it easy to pay via multibanco?

[Farol]

Very easy to pay by multibanco but only if you have a card issued by a Portuguese bank. Those from non-Portuguese banks don't give you the same options. The instructions on how to pay are on the back of the bill and are really easy to follow. Can't remember the full details but basically you select Payments then Payments to the State and then you get asked for the bill reference number - the ATM then displays the amount (without you having to enter it) and asks you to confirm payment and that is about it. The machine then prints a receipt.

Very easy, reliable in my experience and you get immediate receipt.

[maccasa]

Absolute doddle to pay by multibanco - you have to select the box which says payments to the state and then fiscal payments - you enter the code on the letter, then the amount and send - receipt comes out of the machine.

[georgewportugal]

Good morning
If you send me (by private message ) your name and fiscal number I can go the the Financias and obtain confirmation whether the payment has been made.

[joeysoap]

Thanks George, but if you can do that, why can't I?

[steve]

If you are over here of course you can call in at the Finanças but from your original post it looked as if you were in the UK.

You can log on to the Finanças website to check this sort of information but you have to be registered with the Finanças to do so and have been allocated a personal logon and password to gain access to the site.

[georgewportugal]

Hello again
Apologies, I made the assumption you were in the UK.
Of course you can go into the Financias with previous documentation and ID and request an up to date account of your payments made.
If you need any help just let us know

[joeysoap]

thank you all for your replies, much appreciated. Both last posts are (semi )correct, I am in Ireland at the moment but hopefully will be in Portugal next month. I have no reason to doubt that the tax has been paid or that my fiscal rep is telling me anything but the truth, but if the facility is there to check up on your account than it makes sense to do so. EMM's first post was interesting but looks like if you are non resident you still have to involve a solicitor or certainly someone local the financas will send the invoice to. my fiscal rep charges €150 + vat and while this is for very little work this is not my main concern.

So looks like the best bet is to get registered with Finanças and obtain a personal login and password set up. Where is the nearest Finanças office to CVO and do they speak English and are they helpful ?

[sam]

Nearest office is in Lagoa, in offices near the Theatre. You take a number from the machine & queue. I went with a friend who speaks fluent portuguese, so not sure on their english, but suspect it would be fine. You can also pay at the post office if you have the bill. I think you can register on-line for access and password.

[joeysoap]

Thanks Sam, much appreciated. must pay them a visit when I am out and check my status.

[Mylen1um]

Following the ruling last year that we no longer needed to use a Fiscal Representative to sort out our IMI bills, I have followed this thread, and other similar ones on the same subject on other forums, with interest.

Firstly, our circumstances –
1. My wife & I have owned an apartment in the Algarve for 10 years.
2. We are not resident here, we are resident in the UK & we do not have any other tax liability in Portugal. We do not rent our apartment out.
3. We did not receive any Fiscal Cards from our Lawyer when we bought the apartment but this hasn’t caused any issues as we’ve never been asked for them – and that includes shopping at Makro.
4. We only started paying our Lawyer for his Fiscal Representation services in 2005 – before that there was no charge.
5. He initially wanted €500 (€250 each) for this service but when we queried this with him he reduced it to €300 (€150 each) & we have been paying €300 per year ever since.
6. Apart from the usual Water & Electricity bills we also receive bills from PT (now paperless but originally to our Portugal address), Repsol (for our gas supply) which is sent to our UK address and our Condominium bills from Loja Do Condominio (now paperless but originally sent to our UK address). In addition, we also receive letters & statements at our UK address from our Bank, Santander Totta.

So, having read all the info, comments & experiences we went to the Finanças Office in Albufeira this morning with the intention of getting our IMI bill sent to the UK and saving the €300 a year rip off.

We took with us everything we had that we thought would be relevant – copies of previous IMI bills showing our fiscal numbers, copies of letters from various Portuguese Companies sent to either our Portugal or UK addresses. We also took our Passports & my UK Driving Licence.

Not knowing exactly where to go our what to do, we went into the door on the right of the building & took a ticket. As there was nobody in front of us we walked straight up to the guy there & told him why we were there. He explained that we were in the wrong department & we were to go back out of the building & go in the door on the left hand side of the building. He also told us to keep the same ticket.

We sat in here for about 30 minutes before our number came up & when it did we again explained to the guy what we wanted. He didn’t bat an eyelid at our request but told us that the lady next to him dealt with that so we would have to wait for her to be free – this took another 30 minutes or so but we didn't mind too much as we actually thought we were at last getting somewhere.
Eventually we got to explain what we wanted to this lady (fairy short, curly hair & wearing glasses).

He first words were “you can’t do that” but after a few minutes discussion with her she disappeared out the back & returned some 10 minutes later.
She then told us that her colleague had said we could change the address for our IMI bills to one in the UK but she didn’t think they’d get posted there.
A bit baffling but then nothing about Portugal surprises us that much anymore.
Anyway, after further discussion we decided to continue.
First she asked for our Fiscal Cards but when we explained that we had never had these she asked us for the corresponding document that was issued at the time. Luckily we had these so we pressed on.
She dealt with mine first, asking only for my Driving Licence & Passport, and it took her about 15 minutes to complete this by photocopying everything & then getting me to sigh 2 forms.
Job done.

However, when it came to my wife’s turn we hit a major problem. My wife doesn’t drive & therefore she does not have a Driving Licence.
Furthermore, we had nothing that had my wife’s name & address on it as everything is in my name only.
The lady then explained that the only thing she could except, other than a Driving Licence, was something from the UK Government – she could not accept any Portuguese bills, even if they did have her name on them. The only correspondence my wife gets from the UK Government is her tax code but obviously we didn’t have this with us.

So the upshot is that we have my bill going to the UK (hopefully) and my wife’s bill going to our Lawyer. We not back here again until April so assuming that my bill arrives in the UK we will return to the Finance Office then & try again.
All in all it took us over 2 hours to get this far & we’re still not sure exactly what’s happening with my bill but I will let you know if I do hear anything.

In conclusion, it appears that nobody really knows what’s going on as there seems to be a lot of uncertainty at the Finanças Office.
However, all the hassle will be worth it if we can save €300 a year.

Apologies for such a long post but I thought the whole tale would be of interest to some.

[joeysoap]

thanks for that informative post, and please do keep us informed.

for what its worth this company charge €190 per couple (think you could haggle it down to €150 no problem - that's what I am paying.

my solicitors recommended a fiscal rep in Loule, cost €275 pa +vat, however I went with this company http://www.portugal-tax.com/
and to the best of my knowledge the company in Loule now advertise that they will match tax angels. (still no receipt from October but expecting April bill shortly and at that stage I will ask for a receipt, they have however informed me that my tax is up to date).