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Inherited Property Capital Gains Calculator

When you sell a house you inherited, Portuguese tax does not start from what your parents paid for it. It starts from the property’s tax value on the date of death. See what is left after tax, with your share and the costs you can deduct.

Enter the figures for the whole property, both the sale price and the tax value on the date of death: your share is applied to both. Under costs, count only what you actually paid, including the stamp duty on the inheritance, the deed of heirs, registration, the estate agent’s commission and the energy certificate.

Income tax on the gain
€7,643.10
Capital gain
€43,800.00
Sale value attributable to you€100,000.00
Acquisition value attributable to you (VPT at death)€40,000.00
Inflation-adjusted acquisition value (coefficient 1.28)€51,200.00
Capital gain€43,800.00
Taxable half of the gain€21,900.00
Gain after tax€36,156.90

The effective rate on the gain is 17.45%, because only half of it is taxed.

Calculation for mainland Portugal and for residents, using the 2025 coefficients (Portaria 382/2025/1). Out of scope: selling a hereditary share in an undivided estate, whose taxation is disputed in the courts, balancing payments made in the partition, usufruct and bare ownership splits, inherited shares and other securities, and the reinvestment exclusion for a main home. Inherited from two people on different dates? Run the calculator once per share and add the results.

Educational estimate, not tax or financial advice. Official figures: the Portuguese income tax code and the tax authority.

The acquisition value is the tax value at the date of death

This is where almost everyone goes wrong. On a house you bought, the acquisition value is the price on the deed. On an inherited house there is no price at all, so article 45.º, n.º 1 of the income tax code directs you to the value taken into account for stamp duty or, where no stamp duty was due, the value that would have served as its base. Since a spouse, children and parents are exempt from inheritance stamp duty under point e) of article 6.º of that code, it is almost always this second rule that applies. And the value it leads to is fixed by article 13.º, n.º 1 of the stamp duty code: the tax value on the register at the date of the transmission. You will find it on the caderneta predial and on the death declaration filed with the tax office.

The acquisition date is the day of death, not the partition

Article 5.º, n.º 1, point p) of the stamp duty code provides that in successions by death the obligation arises on the date the succession opens, which the Civil Code fixes at the moment of death. That is your acquisition date for capital gains, as the Portuguese chartered accountants’ body confirms in its technical opinion on inherited property. The partition, which may happen years later, merely gives concrete form to what was already yours, and does not count. Two practical consequences follow: the inflation coefficient is the one for the year of death, and it is the year of death that decides whether the sale falls inside or outside income tax at all.

The two-years-back rule belongs to gifts, not inheritances

You will find on several sites, including some of the largest, the advice to use the tax value registered up to two years earlier. That rule does exist, but it sits in n.º 3 of article 45.º and covers only exempt gifts: it was created by Law 12/2022 to stop someone raising a property’s tax value and gifting it immediately afterwards to shrink a future gain. An inheritance is not a gift, and the legislator wrote gifts. Applying it to an inheritance means using an older and almost always lower value, which inflates the gain and overpays the tax.

What comes off, and how much is taxed

The tax value is adjusted by the currency devaluation coefficient for the year of death, published by portaria under article 50.º, provided more than 24 months separate the inheritance from the sale. Article 51.º then allows the necessary expenses inherent to the acquisition and the sale, which covers any stamp duty you paid, the deed of heirs, registration, the estate agent’s commission and the energy certificate, plus improvement works carried out in the last 12 years and backed by invoices. Of whatever balance remains, only 50% is taxed, and that half must be aggregated with your other income and pays at your marginal rate. That is why the rate is a field on the calculator rather than a fixed number.

Several heirs, and each declares their own part

A house inherited by three siblings produces three gains, each in proportion to the respective share. Enter the totals for the property and state the percentage that is yours: the calculator applies it to both the sale price and the tax value. Under costs, count only the part you actually paid. If you inherited at different moments, say half from your father in 1995 and half from your mother in 2018, you hold two acquisitions with their own dates and values: run the calculation once for each and add the results.

Worked example

Take two siblings who inherit their mother’s house after she dies in 2010, when its tax value was €80,000. They now sell it for €200,000 and each paid €5,000 in agent’s commission, energy certificate and inheritance paperwork. Each holds 50%, so each is attributed €100,000 of sale value and €40,000 of acquisition value. The 2010 coefficient is 1.28, which lifts the acquisition to €51,200. The gain is €100,000 less €51,200 less €5,000, that is €43,800. Only half enters the tax: €21,900. At a marginal rate of 34.9% the tax is €7,643.10, leaving €36,156.90 of the gain. The effective rate on the gain is 17.45%, exactly half the marginal rate, because only half of the gain is taxed. Had the mother died in 1985, the same sale would pay no income tax at all.

Frequently asked questions

What is the acquisition value of an inherited house in Portugal?
It is the property’s tax value (VPT) on the date of death, not the price the deceased paid for it. Article 45.º, n.º 1 of the income tax code requires the value taken into account for stamp duty or, if none was due because the inheritance passed between close family, the value that would have served as its base, which article 13.º, n.º 1 of the stamp duty code fixes at the tax value on the date of the transmission.
Should I use the tax value of the year of death or of two years before?
The year of death. The rule about the tax value registered up to two years earlier sits in n.º 3 of article 45.º and applies only to exempt gifts, an anti-abuse provision created by Law 12/2022. A lot of published material applies it to inheritances by mistake, which usually produces a lower acquisition value and therefore too much tax.
What is the acquisition date of an inherited property?
The date of death, because that is when the succession opens, as point p) of n.º 1 of article 5.º of the stamp duty code states. The partition deed, even if it only happens years later, does not change that date. It is the date of death that determines which inflation coefficient applies.
Is there tax if the inheritance happened before 1989?
No. Article 5.º of Decreto-Lei 442-A/88 subjects to income tax only gains on assets acquired after the Code came into force, on 1 January 1989. Since the heir acquires on the date of death, a death before that date leaves the gain outside the tax even if the sale is happening today. The sale still has to be declared, in annex G1. Building land is the exception, as it was already taxed under the old capital gains tax.
Can I deduct the stamp duty I paid on the inheritance?
Yes. It is a necessary expense actually incurred and inherent to the acquisition, so it falls under article 51.º, n.º 1, point a) of the income tax code. It only exists where the heir is not the spouse, a descendant or an ascendant of the deceased, since those are exempt from the 10% rate of item 1.2 of the general table by article 6.º of the stamp duty code.
There are three of us. How is the gain split?
Each heir computes their gain in proportion to the share they hold, and declares it on their own tax return. Enter the totals for the property and your percentage: the calculator applies it to the sale value and to the tax value. Costs should be only the part you paid.
Can I avoid the tax by reinvesting the money?
Only if the inherited house was your own permanent home and you reinvest in another permanent home, under the conditions of article 10.º, n.º 5 of the income tax code. A house you inherited and do not live in does not open that exclusion. If you are 65 or over, or already retired, a separate regime lets you apply the sale proceeds to a retirement savings product.
What if I sell my share of the estate instead of the property?
That answer is disputed. Uniformising acórdão 7/2025 of the Supreme Administrative Court held that selling a hereditary share is not the onerous disposal of a real right over property and therefore produces no taxable gain. But the tax authority, in a binding ruling of March 2026, and the South Central Administrative Court, in an acórdão of 26 February 2026, both treat the sale of a specific property from an undivided estate as taxable. This calculator follows the sale of the property. If you are considering selling the share itself, take advice before signing.

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Author: Thorben Rasmus Idel · Reviewed by: Nahar Geva · Last reviewed: 2026-08-09