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Portuguese Investment Tax Relief Calculator (RFAI)

The RFAI returns part of what a Portuguese company invests as a tax credit, but the rate depends on the region. Enter the investment, where you make it and the taxable profit.

Enter the total relevant applications already established as eligible under article 22.º(2). The region is where the investment is made, not where the company is headquartered. Under other aid, add up grants, incentives and any other regional state aid granted to the same investment.

RFAI credit
€150,000.00
Deductible in this period
€27,500.00
Rate applicable to the region30%
Deduction up to 15,000,000 EUR of investment€150,000.00
Deduction on the part above 15,000,000 EUR€0.00
Credit as a % of the investment30%
Maximum aid intensity for the region50%
Maximum regional aid for this investment€250,000.00
Corporate tax charge for the period€55,000.00
Deduction limit for the period (50% of the charge)€27,500.00
Carried forward€122,500.00
Corporate tax due after the deduction€27,500.00

Note that the period limit is not the whole tax charge. Article 23.º(2) only allows 50% of the corporate tax charge to be deducted, which here is €27,500.00 out of a charge of €55,000.00. That is the difference from SIFIDE, which deducts up to the full charge in any year.

The period limit of €27,500.00 is not enough to absorb the whole credit: €122,500.00 carries forward. Article 23.º(3) allows it to be deducted in the assessments of the following 10 tax periods, so it is not lost, only deferred. The deduction reaches the tax charge and never produces a refund.

An educational estimate based on the figures you enter. It does not work out whether the investment is eligible, which is the substantive part of the regime: the three families of relevant applications in article 22.º(2) and their exclusions (land, buildings other than industrial premises, passenger cars, furniture and social facilities), the 50% cap on intangible and salary applications in non-SMEs, the eligible sectors in article 2.º and the cumulative conditions in article 22.º(4), among them keeping the assets in the region for 3 years. It also does not work out the new economic activity rule for non-SMEs in article 107(3)(c) regions, the property tax, property transfer tax and stamp duty exemptions in the same article 23.º, which depend on the municipal assembly recognising the interest of the investment, the adjustment for projects above 50,000,000 EUR, or the surcharges, which sit outside the deduction ceiling.

An informational estimate based on the Portuguese Investment Tax Code. This is not tax or financial advice.

Video: how to use the calculator

The rate depends on where you invest, and almost everyone gets this wrong

The RFAI is summed up everywhere as “30% of the investment”, and that is only true in part of the country. Article 23.º(1)(a) of the Portuguese Investment Tax Code deducts 30% of relevant applications up to 15,000,000 EUR and 10% on the part above that, but only in regions eligible under article 107(3)(a) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. In article 107(3)(c) regions the rate is 10% on the whole amount. Which is which sits in the table of article 43.º(1), which reproduces the national regional aid map approved by the European Commission on 8 February 2022 for the 2022 to 2027 period. The first column covers the North, the eight sub-regions of the Centre, the five of the Alentejo, the Azores and Madeira. The second holds only the Algarve and the Lisbon metropolitan area, both marked “partial” and limited to a closed list of civil parishes. Outside that list the investment is not on the map and generates no RFAI at all.

What bites is the tax charge, not the rate

Working out the deduction is the easy part. What decides how much you actually save this year is article 23.º(2), which caps the deduction at 50% of the corporate tax charge determined in each tax period. Only in the start-up period and the two that follow, and provided the company is not the result of a demerger, does the deduction run up to the full charge. That is the most important practical difference from SIFIDE, which deducts up to 100% of the charge in any year, and it is why a company making a substantial investment sees most of the credit deferred. What does not fit is not lost: paragraph 3 allows the remainder to be deducted in the assessments of the following 10 tax periods, subject to the same 50% limit in the years where it applies. Note also that the deduction is made against the charge determined under article 90.º(1)(a) of the corporate tax code, that is the corporate tax charge and only that: the municipal and state surcharges sit outside it and are paid in full.

The regional aid ceiling, and the case nobody highlights

Article 23.º(5) adds that the benefits must respect the maximum regional aid limits in force in the region, and paragraph 6 requires counting the total amount of regional state aid granted to the same investment, from every source. The maximum intensity is the one in the article 43.º table, between 15% in the Algarve and the Lisbon metropolitan area and 50% in the Azores, uplifted under paragraph 2 of the same article by 10 percentage points for medium enterprises and 20 points for micro and small ones, except on projects whose relevant applications exceed 50,000,000 EUR. From this follows a case that is rarely explained: in a 30% region a large company has a maximum intensity of exactly 30%, which is the RFAI rate itself. The benefit on its own exhausts the allowance, and any grant received on the same investment reduces the RFAI euro for euro. That is why the calculator asks about other aid and applies the ceiling.

What the calculator does (and what it leaves out)

The calculator starts from the total of relevant applications already established as eligible, applies the rate of the region you choose with the 15,000,000 EUR threshold, checks the result against the regional aid limit for your company size, derives the corporate tax charge from the taxable profit you enter and splits the credit between what is deducted now and what carries forward. It leaves out the most demanding part of the regime, which is deciding what counts as a relevant application: tangible fixed assets acquired new and the six exclusions in article 22.º(2), among them land, buildings other than industrial premises, passenger cars and furniture; intangible assets consisting of technology transfer; and the salary costs of jobs created at level 7 or 8 of the National Qualifications Framework, added by Law 82/2023. It also leaves out the eligible sectors, the cumulative conditions in article 22.º(4), the new economic activity rule for non-SMEs in article 107(3)(c) regions, and the other three branches of the benefit, which are the exemption or reduction of property tax and property transfer tax and the stamp duty exemption, and which depend on the municipal assembly recognising the interest of the investment.

Worked example

Take a small company investing 500,000 EUR in a new production line in the North, with a taxable profit of 300,000 EUR. Because the North sits in the article 107(3)(a) column and the investment is below 15,000,000 EUR, the deduction is 30%, that is 150,000 EUR. The maximum aid intensity in the region is 30%, uplifted by 20 points because it is a small company, giving 50% and a ceiling of 250,000 EUR: the credit fits comfortably. The corporate tax charge is 55,000 EUR, because the first 50,000 EUR of taxable profit is taxed at 15% and the remaining 250,000 EUR at 19%. And this is where the sum changes hands: because the period limit is 50% of the charge, this company deducts only 27,500 EUR this year, still pays the other 27,500 EUR of corporate tax and carries 122,500 EUR into the following ten periods. The credit is worth almost three times the year’s tax charge, but what the regime gives it in 2026 is half the tax, not all of it.

Frequently asked questions

How much does the RFAI give back?
It depends on the region where the investment is made. In regions eligible under article 107(3)(a) of the Treaty, which are the North, the Centre, the Alentejo, the Azores and Madeira, it is 30% of relevant applications up to 15,000,000 EUR and 10% on the part above that. In regions eligible under article 107(3)(c), which come down to parts of the Algarve and of the Lisbon metropolitan area, it is 10% on the whole amount. Note that this is the deduction rate, not the maximum aid intensity in the article 43.º table, which is a different and higher limit.
Can I use the RFAI on an investment in Lisbon?
In most of the city and the municipality, no. The article 43.º table only includes the Lisbon metropolitan area as a “partial” region, and the list of eligible civil parishes is closed: Alcochete, Gâmbia-Pontes-Alto da Guerra, Moita, Pinhal Novo, Quinta do Anjo, Sado, São Francisco, the united parishes of Atalaia and Alto Estanqueiro-Jardia, of Gaio-Rosário and Sarilhos Pequenos, of Palhais and Coina, of Pegões, and of Poceirão and Marateca. Outside them the investment is not on the regional aid map and there is no RFAI. The Algarve works the same way, with its own list of seventeen parishes.
If the credit is bigger than the tax, do I get the difference?
No. The deduction is made against the corporate tax charge and never produces a refund. Worse than that, it does not even reach the whole charge: article 23.º(2) caps it at 50% of the charge determined in the period, and only in the start-up period and the two that follow does it run to the full amount. The part that does not fit can be deducted in the assessments of the following 10 tax periods, so a company investing now and turning a profit later has time to use the benefit.
Can I combine the RFAI with SIFIDE on the same investment?
Not on the same relevant applications. Article 24.º(1) says the RFAI is not cumulative with any tax benefits of the same nature, including contractual ones, in respect of the same relevant applications. A company may use both regimes in the same year, provided each item of spending is allocated to only one of them. In practice that is an allocation decision taken before the documents are filed, not after.
Does the RFAI stack with the retained and reinvested profits deduction?
Yes, and it is the only exception the law writes down. Article 24.º(2) says expressly that the RFAI is cumulative with the DLRR, provided and to the extent that the maximum regional aid limits in article 23.º(5) and (6) are not exceeded. In other words, the two benefits share the same allowance: added together they cannot exceed the maximum intensity of the region for the company size.
What counts as a relevant application?
Article 22.º(2) lists three families, all on condition that they are used in the business. Tangible fixed assets acquired new, with six exclusions that catch many people out: land, except in extractive industry; the construction, acquisition, repair and extension of buildings, unless they are industrial premises or used for tourism, audiovisual production or administration; passenger and mixed-use cars; furniture and comfort or decoration items, except hotel equipment; social facilities; and other assets not used in the business. Then intangible assets consisting of technology transfer, such as patents and licences. And, since Law 82/2023, the salary costs of creating jobs at level 7 or 8 of the National Qualifications Framework.
What happens if I sell the equipment before the deadline?
Article 22.º requires keeping the assets in the company and in the region for at least three years in micro, small and medium enterprises and five in the others, or for their minimum useful life if that is shorter. If that period is not met, article 26.º adds to the corporate tax of the period in which the assets were disposed of the tax that was not assessed because of the benefit, plus the corresponding compensatory interest uplifted by 10 percentage points. It is one of the few Portuguese tax benefits with an aggravated penalty written into the rule itself.
Are the figures exact?
The 30% and 10% rates, the 15,000,000 EUR threshold, the 50% and 100% ceilings on the tax charge, the 10 carry-forward periods and the 10 and 20 point uplifts by company size come from articles 23.º and 43.º of the Portuguese Investment Tax Code, and the regional table is the map approved for 2022 to 2027. The result is an educational estimate based on the figures you enter: it does not check whether the investment is eligible, whether the sector is covered or whether the conditions in article 22.º are met, which are the substantive part of the regime. It does not replace the help of a certified accountant.

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Author: Thorben Rasmus Idel · Reviewed by: Nahar Geva · Last reviewed: 2026-08-13