Portugal capital gains tax 2026: 28% on shares and crypto, 50% rule on property, non-resident rules, 365-day crypto rule, reliefs and losses
Short answer. Portugal taxes capital gains through personal income tax (IRS). What you pay depends on two things: what you sold, and whether you are tax resident here. For most residents, shares are taxed at a flat 28% and property on half the gain at the normal rates.
In more detail. Portugal taxes capital gains under the personal income tax (IRS), and how it does so turns on two questions: what you sold, and whether you are tax resident. For a resident, gains on shares and ETFs, and on crypto held under a year, are taxed at a flat 28% unless you opt into the progressive scale; gains on property are taxed on 50% of the gain at progressive rates of 12.5% to 48%. A non-resident pays Portuguese tax on Portuguese property (50% of the gain, progressive rates) but is usually exempt on Portuguese shares, and gains on crypto held 365 days or more are excluded, provided neither party is resident outside the EU/EEA or a jurisdiction with a tax treaty or information-exchange agreement with Portugal.
What follows is the detail, which is where, as ever, both the traps and the reliefs prefer to live.
This guide is written for individuals, for tax year 2026, selling assets they hold privately (not through a company or a registered business activity). It has three kinds of reader in mind:
It does not cover gains realised inside a sole-trader business (Category B), the legacy NHR or IFICI regimes, or inheritance and gifts, all of which follow separate rules. One point does touch a great many readers, however: under IFICI, foreign capital gains (Category G) are exempt in Portugal but are counted when setting the rate on your other income (CIRS art. 81(4)). Exempt, in other words, is not quite the same as invisible. And if you are a US citizen or have recently left the UK, your home country may also have a claim on these gains; that is a foreign-law question, and it deserves its own adviser.
If you read nothing else, read this table.
| Asset | Portuguese tax resident | Non-resident |
|---|---|---|
| Listed shares, ETFs, fund units | 28% flat on the net gain (CIRS art. 72(1)(c)), or progressive rates by option (art. 72(13)). Holding-period discount: 10% of the gain excluded after 2 years, 20% after 5, 30% after 8 (art. 43(5)). Short-term gains (under 365 days) are forced into the progressive scale if taxable income reaches the top bracket (art. 72(14)). | Gains on shares and securities issued by Portuguese entities are exempt (EBF art. 27(1)), except for tax-haven residents and companies whose assets are over 50% Portuguese real estate (art. 27(3)). Shares of non-Portuguese companies are generally outside Portuguese source rules (CIRS art. 18(1)(i)). |
| Unlisted shares in micro or small companies | Only 50% of a positive balance is taxed (art. 43(3)), then 28% or progressive by option. | As above (EBF art. 27). |
| Real estate in Portugal | 50% of the gain is added to other income and taxed at progressive rates (art. 43(2)(b), art. 68). Primary-residence reinvestment relief available (art. 10(5)). | 50% of the gain, mandatorily at progressive rates (art. 22(3)(a), art. 43(2)(b)); worldwide income counts to set the rate (art. 22(10)). 35% if resident in a listed tax haven (art. 72(18)(d)). |
| Crypto-assets (not securities) | Held 365 days or more: excluded (art. 10(22)). Held under 365 days and sold for money: 28% (art. 72(1)(c)), or progressive by option. Crypto-for-crypto swaps are not a taxable event (art. 10(23)). | The 365-day exclusion and swap deferral do not apply where either party is resident outside the EU/EEA or a treaty or exchange-of-information jurisdiction (art. 10(24)). Crypto is not listed among Portuguese-source gains in art. 18; whether Portugal taxes a non-resident at all needs case-by-case review. |
Rates on the progressive scale for 2026 run from 12.5% on the first 8,342 euros of taxable income to 48% above 86,634 euros (art. 68(1), as amended by Lei n.º 73-A/2025).
The people below are fictional, though their dilemmas are not. The figures are round and ignore the inflation coefficient (see below), which would reduce the property gain further.
Ana, resident in Lisbon, bought a flat in Porto in 2015 for 200,000 euros (the value on which IMT was paid) and sells it in 2026 for 350,000 euros. Along the way she paid 20,000 euros in acquisition and sale costs (IMT, deed, agent commission) and spent 30,000 euros on documented renovation in 2020. Her gain: 350,000 - 200,000 - 20,000 - 30,000 = 100,000 euros. Half of it, 50,000 euros, is added to her other 2026 income and taxed at progressive rates. The flat was never her primary residence, however fond of it she may have been, so no reinvestment relief applies.
Ben, also resident, bought units in a listed ETF in 2023 for 40,000 euros and sells them in 2026 for 50,000 euros. Because he held them for more than 2 but under 5 years, 10% of the 10,000 euro gain is excluded. That leaves a taxable gain of 9,000 euros, which at 28% = 2,520 euros. If his overall income is low he can instead opt to include the gain in the progressive scale, though the option comes as a package: it then pulls in all his Category G income of that kind for the year (art. 22(5)).
Carla, resident, bought Bitcoin in January 2025 for 10,000 euros and sold it for 15,000 euros in cash in October 2025, 270 days later. The 5,000 euro gain is taxed at 28% = 1,400 euros. Had she waited until January 2026 (365 days), the gain would have been excluded altogether. Had she swapped the Bitcoin for Ether instead of selling for euros, no tax would arise at that point; the Ether would simply inherit the original 10,000 euro cost, like a family portrait passed down with the house.
David lives in London and sells an apartment in Lisbon in 2026 at a 100,000 euro gain after costs. Portugal taxes 50,000 euros at progressive rates. Because the law counts all his income, including his UK salary, to find the rate, a London salary can push the Portuguese rate on those 50,000 euros towards the top of the scale. The UK, meanwhile, will look at the same sale under its own rules; the treaty and a foreign tax credit decide who gives way. That second half of the story needs a UK adviser.
Tax offices, like good historians, prefer primary sources. Keep these:
Reassuringly, the gain is what common sense would expect: the realisation value minus the acquisition value (art. 10(4)(a)). The taxable figure is the net balance of all gains and losses realised in the same year (art. 43(1)). Three adjustments matter:
Sales of shares and other securities, fund unit redemptions and bond repayments are all Category G gains (art. 10(1)(b)). For residents the positive balance is taxed at the 28% autonomous rate (art. 72(1)(c)). Residents may instead opt to include the balance in their progressive income (art. 72(13)), but the option covers the whole category (art. 22(5)), so it mainly pays when the marginal rate is below 28% (it also unlocks loss carry-forward, see below). Two exceptions sit on top:
Since Lei n.º 31/2024, patience has had a small reward. Gains on listed securities and open-ended funds get a holding-period discount: 10% of the gain excluded after more than 2 years, 20% from 5 years, 30% from 8 years (art. 43(5)). Unlisted micro and small companies are taxed on 50% of the gain (art. 43(3)). For identical securities, the oldest are deemed sold first (art. 43(8)(d)). Losses against a tax-haven counterparty are ignored (art. 43(7)).
Non-residents without a Portuguese permanent establishment are exempt on gains from Portuguese-issued shares and securities (EBF art. 27(1)), unless they live in a listed tax haven or the company's assets are more than 50% Portuguese real estate (art. 27(3)).
Only 50% of the net gain on real estate counts (art. 43(2)(b)); that half is added to the year's other income and taxed on the progressive scale (art. 68). The exception is property that received non-repayable public support above 30% of its tax value and is sold within 10 years, which is taxed in full (art. 43(2)(a)).
Non-residents since 2023. Lei n.º 24-D/2022 revoked the old 28% flat rate for non-residents' property gains (art. 72(1)(a), revoked) and dropped the word "residents" from the 50% rule. It was a small edit with a large consequence. A non-resident now also declares 50% of the gain, at progressive rates (art. 22(3)(a)), with all worldwide income taken into account to set the rate, on the same terms as residents (art. 22(10)). Tax-haven residents pay 35% (art. 72(18)(d)).
Primary-residence reinvestment relief. The gain on your own permanent home is excluded if the sale proceeds, net of any mortgage repaid, are reinvested in another permanent home in Portugal, the EU or the EEA (the EEA only where there is exchange of tax information), between 24 months before and 36 months after the sale, and you declare the intention in the return for the year of sale (art. 10(5)(a) to (c)). The sold home must have been your tax domicile for the 12 months before sale, barring exceptional family changes (art. 10(5)(e), (26)). The relief is lost if the new home is not occupied within 12 months, or, for construction, if registration is not requested within 48 months (art. 10(6)). Partial reinvestment gives proportional relief (art. 10(12)). The AT's own FAQ adds that the reinvestment must be made without recourse to credit.
Other reliefs. Sellers who are retired or at least 65 can instead put the proceeds into a life insurance contract, open pension fund, public capitalisation scheme or pan-European pension product within six months (art. 10(10)). For sales between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2029, gains on a primary residence or other housing are also excluded when reinvested in Portuguese property let for housing at rents within the limits set by Decreto-Lei n.º 97/2026, with a lease signed within six months and held for at least 36 months in the first five years (art. 10(7) to (9)). The earlier "Mais Habitação" window, by contrast, has closed for new sales. It excluded gains on building land or homes other than the seller's primary residence, sold between 1 January 2022 and 31 December 2024, when the proceeds were used within three months to repay the mortgage on the primary residence of the seller or a descendant (Lei n.º 56/2023, art. 50).
Since 1 January 2023, selling crypto-assets that are not securities is a Category G gain (art. 10(1)(k)); NFTs are excluded from the definition (art. 10(21)). The rules, mercifully, are fewer than the coins:
Losses only offset gains in the same category (art. 55(1)); apples, so to speak, are set against apples. Within a year, gains and losses net automatically (art. 43(1)). Whether a loss can be carried forward depends on the asset:
Two countries wanting the same gain is an old story, and the treaties exist to referee it. A Portuguese resident with foreign gains gets a credit for foreign income tax paid, capped at the lower of the foreign tax and the Portuguese tax on that income (art. 81(1)); where a treaty exists, the credit cannot exceed the foreign tax the treaty allows (art. 81(2)). If the credit cannot be used because the Portuguese tax that year is too low, the remainder carries forward five years (art. 81(3)); foreign tax above the Portuguese tax on that gain is not carried forward. Portuguese source rules treat gains on Portuguese property, Portuguese-company shares, and shares in land-rich companies as arising here (art. 18(1)(h), (i), (p)). Which country gives way on a given sale depends on the treaty with the UK or the US and on the asset. This guide does not interpret foreign law or treaty articles, and a cross-border sale should be reviewed on both sides.
Most sales are perfectly straightforward. These are the ones that tend not to be:
OnCorporate prepares Portuguese capital-gains calculations and IRS filings for residents and non-residents and coordinates with your UK or US adviser. Talk to our tax team.
Written by OnCorporate Editorial Team. Tax reviewed by Luiz Augusto Teixeira de Freitas, Director. Applies to tax year 2026, Portugal. Published 19 October 2026. Last substantively reviewed 19 October 2026.
