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Usufruct and Bare Ownership Value Calculator

When a property is split between the person who uses it and the person who owns the root, the two values are not agreed between the parties: they come from a statutory table driven by the usufructuary’s age. See what each part is worth and the tax at each of the two moments.

The age that counts is the usufructuary’s, that is whoever keeps the right to use the property. In a gift with reserved usufruct that is the donor. The last field only feeds the consolidation tax: leave it equal to the full property value if you do not expect the tax value to change.

Value of the usufruct (30%)
€60,000.00
Value of the bare ownership (70%)
€140,000.00
Value of use and habitation (usufruct less 30%)€42,000.00
Stamp duty on gifting the bare ownership (0.8%)€1,120.00
Consolidation tax base€60,000.00
Stamp duty on consolidation€480.00
Stamp duty across both moments€1,600.00

As a spouse, descendant or ascendant, the recipient is exempt from the 10% of item 1.2 under article 6.º, point e) of the stamp duty code. That exemption does not cover item 1.1, though: the 0.8% on immovable property is due from everyone, exempt family included.

Calculation for mainland Portugal, using the table in article 13.º of the IMT code. Out of scope: the IMT on an onerous sale of either right, which the IMT calculator works out on the base produced here; a usufruct depending on more than one life; life annuities and surface rights, which have their own points; and the capital gains on a future sale.

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

The age table decides, not what the parties agree

The law’s reasoning is simple: the older the usufructuary, the fewer years are left to enjoy the property and the less the right is worth. So article 13.º, point a) of the IMT code obtains the value of the property separated from the usufruct by deducting from the full property value a percentage that falls in five-year age bands: 80% below age 20, 75% below 25, and so on down to 10% for anyone aged 85 or over. Note the detail that matters most in practice: the bands are written as "less than X years", so someone aged exactly 70 is no longer in the 30% band but in the 25% one. And the percentage the table deducts is, under point b) of the same article, precisely the value of the usufruct, because the current value of the usufruct is obtained by subtracting the bare-ownership value from the full property value.

Which value counts as the full property

The base is the property’s tax value (VPT) or the value of the transaction, whichever is higher, the same rule that governs IMT and stamp duty. In a family gift, where there is no price, it is the tax value on the register that counts, and you will find it on the caderneta predial. If you do not know it yet, work it out first on the property tax value calculator and come back with that number.

A temporary usufruct is counted in five-year periods

A usufruct that lasts a set number of years rather than until death follows the closing part of point a): 10% is deducted for each indivisible five-year period the right still has to run. Indivisible means any fraction counts as a whole period, so twelve years are three periods and are worth 30%, not 24%. There is then a brake many people miss: the deduction cannot exceed what a lifetime usufruct would deduct. A thirty-year usufruct in favour of someone aged 80 would give 60% by counting periods, but is capped at the 15% of their age band, and the calculator flags it when that happens.

The tax is paid at two moments, not one

In a gift with reserved usufruct, what is transmitted is only the bare ownership, and stamp duty is assessed on that. Later, when the usufruct ends and the two parts meet in the same person, article 13.º, n.º 6 of the stamp duty code charges tax on the difference between the property’s tax value at that moment and the bare-ownership value taken into account in the earlier assessment. That is why the calculator asks for a second tax value: if the property has since risen on the register, that rise is taxed too. Added together, the family ends up paying the rate on the whole property, merely spread over time.

Who the beneficiary is changes the number a lot

The rates are those of the general stamp duty table: item 1.2 charges 10% on gratuitous acquisitions and item 1.1 adds 0.8% when the asset is immovable property. Article 6.º, point e) of the stamp duty code exempts a spouse or partner, descendants and ascendants from item 1.2, but that exemption does not cover item 1.1. Gifting the bare ownership to a child always pays the 0.8%, and gifting it to a sibling, nephew or friend pays 10.8%. In both cases the calculation repeats at consolidation.

Use and habitation is worth less than usufruct

The right of use and habitation is narrower than usufruct, because it allows living in the property but not letting it or drawing income from it. Point b) turns that into numbers: it is worth the same as the usufruct when the right is renounced, and that value less 30% in every other case. The calculator shows that third line so you do not mistakenly use the usufruct value where the law requires a lower one.

Worked example

Take a mother aged 68 who gifts her son a flat with a tax value of €200,000, reserving the usufruct for herself for life. At 68 the article 13.º table deducts 30%, so the usufruct she keeps is worth €60,000 and the bare ownership her son receives is worth €140,000. As a descendant, the son is exempt from item 1.2 and pays only the 0.8% of item 1.1 on the bare ownership, that is €1,120. Years later the mother dies and the usufruct ends. If the tax value is still €200,000, article 13.º, n.º 6 taxes the difference between that value and the €140,000 already assessed, that is €60,000, which adds €480. In total the family paid €1,600, precisely 0.8% of the property’s €200,000, only split across two moments. Had the beneficiary been a nephew, the same two calculations at 10.8% would give €15,120 and €6,480, that is €21,600. And had the tax value risen to €250,000 by the date of death, the consolidation base would become €110,000 and the tax at that second moment €880.

Frequently asked questions

How is the value of a usufruct over a property calculated in Portugal?
You apply to the full property value the percentage from the table in article 13.º, point a) of the IMT code, which depends on the age of the person on whose life the usufruct depends. That percentage runs from 80% for someone under 20 down to 10% for someone aged 85 or over, falling five points for every five years of age. What remains is the bare-ownership value.
What is the bare ownership worth?
It is worth the full property value less the usufruct. Point a) defines it that way, obtained by deducting the table percentage from the full property value. With a usufructuary aged 68 the bare ownership is worth 70% of the property; with one aged 40 it is worth only 40%, because the usufruct is then worth 60%.
Can the split between usufruct and bare ownership be agreed between the parties?
Not for tax purposes. The parties may agree any price they like in an onerous transaction, but the taxable base for IMT and stamp duty is the one produced by the statutory table, and that is what the tax authority assesses. In gratuitous transmissions there is no price at all: article 13.º, n.º 4 and article 21.º of the stamp duty code refer directly to the IMT rules.
Whose age counts, the donor’s or the beneficiary’s?
The age of the person on whose life the usufruct’s duration depends, which is the usufructuary. In a gift with reserved usufruct it is the donor who becomes the usufructuary, so it is their age that enters the calculation, not that of whoever receives the bare ownership. If the usufruct is reserved for two people, the duration follows whichever of them keeps it alive longest.
Is tax paid again when the usufructuary dies?
Yes, and this is the part that usually goes unnoticed. Article 13.º, n.º 6 of the stamp duty code provides that, the property having been transmitted separately from the usufruct, the tax due on consolidation falls on the difference between the property’s tax value and the value of its ownership taken into account in the earlier assessment. In practice what is then taxed is the slice that corresponded to the usufruct, plus any rise in the tax value in the meantime.
What if the usufruct runs for a set number of years?
10% is deducted for each indivisible five-year period remaining, which means any fraction counts as a complete period: six years are two periods and are worth 20%. The deduction can never exceed what a lifetime usufruct would deduct, so the age is still needed to know where the cap sits.
What is the difference between usufruct and the right of use and habitation?
Usufruct allows full enjoyment of the property, including letting it and receiving the rent. Use and habitation allows living in it, but not drawing income from it. Being a narrower right, point b) of article 13.º values it at the usufruct value less 30%, except where the right is renounced, in which case it is worth the same as the usufruct.
Do these values feed the capital gains on a future sale?
They are the starting point. When the bare owner sells, the acquisition value is the one that served as the base for the stamp duty assessment on the bare-ownership percentage, as article 45.º, n.º 1 of the income tax code states, and the sale proceeds are split by the same percentages. If you inherited the property, the inherited-property capital gains calculator takes the calculation through to the tax.

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