eFatura: How to Read Your Expense Statement (2026 Guide)

A pharmacy receipt shows up in eFatura. Is it health? Is it cosmetics? The system can't always tell from the merchant alone, and a few of those decisions are yours. You have until the end of February to make them.

That's the core mechanic of e-Fatura: Portal das Finanças collects every invoice associated with your NIF and uses them to calculate your IRS deductions. The system does a lot automatically. But some of it requires you to log in before the end of February and make decisions.

This is what those decisions actually look like.

TL;DR

eFatura collects the invoices issued to your NIF by merchants who communicate them to AT. AT computes your deductions from the invoices communicated by the end of February of the following year. Categories map to different IRS deductions with different rates and caps. The result flows into Anexo H of your Modelo 3 filing.

If you're a freelancer on Categoria B, eFatura works double duty: personal expenses (health, education) feed into Anexo H deductions, and, if you provide services as a freelancer under the simplified regime, business expenses you classify as professional also count toward the 15% documented expense requirement. Those two flows are separate. Invoices from foreign suppliers never reach eFatura, so you declare them yourself.

The annual deadline comes early. An invoice that hasn't been communicated to AT by the end of February is not in the computation. You can still declare your own figures for some categories when you file, but then you carry the burden of proof.

What eFatura actually is

When you buy something in Portugal and give your NIF, the merchant's invoicing software reports that transaction to AT. It lands in your eFatura account, linked to a sector based on the merchant's registered business activity. Health clinic → Saúde. School fees → Educação. Most of the time that lands in the right place.

Sometimes it doesn't. Pharmacies sell prescription medication and shampoo. A venue might run events and a café in the same space. The merchant's business code alone can't tell you which of those an invoice belongs to, so those invoices may need a decision from you.

The deductions AT computes feed into Anexo H of your IRS Modelo 3, the deductions section. AT calculates them from the invoices communicated by the end of February and publishes the amounts on the Portal by 15 March. Wrong categorization means wrong deductions, which means you either overpay or file incorrectly.

The categories and 2026 deduction caps

Each category has its own deduction rate and annual ceiling. The exigência de fatura rate and cap come from Art. 78.º-F of the IRS code. OE2026 (Lei 73-A/2025) added cultural sectors to that bucket. The other figures below are per current CIRS rules. Verify against the current budget law if you're reading this for a tax year other than 2026.

Category	How the deduction is calculated	Annual cap
Saúde (Health)	15% of total expenses	€1,000 per household
Educação (Education)	30% of total expenses	€800 per household (not per student)
Lares (Senior care)	25% of total expenses	€403.75 per household
Habitação (Housing: rent)	15% of rent paid	Capped; the cap rises for lower incomes
Exigência de fatura (Restaurants, hairdressers, car repair, vet, accommodation)	15% of the IVA on invoices	€250 per household
Cultural (Issuers in theatre and music, performance venues, libraries, museums, historic sites; new 2026)	15% of the IVA on invoices	Counts toward the same cap

Notice the distinction in the last two rows. Health and education deductions are calculated on the total expense amount. The exigência de fatura and cultural categories work differently: you only get 15% of the VAT component. More on why that matters in a moment.

The end-of-February cut-off

AT computes your deductions from the invoices communicated to it by the end of February of the year after they were issued (the 28th, or the 29th in a leap year). That is the cut-off the law sets. Before then, log in, find anything that still needs a category or looks wrong, and fix it. AT then publishes the deductions it computed on the Portal das Finanças by 15 March.

If you disagree with the general family expenses figure (despesas gerais familiares) or the exigência de fatura figure, you can file a complaint (reclamação) by 31 March. That complaint does not cover health, education, housing or care homes. For those four, you replace AT's figures by declaring your household's own totals in Anexo H when you file the Modelo 3, and you need the documents to back them.

Invoices that could fit more than one category

Not every invoice needs you to do something.

Pharmacies are the most common ambiguous case. The rule follows the VAT rate. Goods a pharmacy sells at the reduced or exempt rate count as Saúde without a prescription. Goods taxed at the normal rate count only if a prescription backs them, and you flag those invoices on the Portal. A mixed basket can contain both, so look at the VAT rate on each line.

Multi-service businesses: a restaurant with an events function, a sports club with a café. Assign based on what you actually paid for.

Invoices you don't recognize: check the merchant's NIF before assuming they are errors. Sometimes it's a corporate parent behind a familiar brand. If an invoice looks genuinely wrong, ask the issuer to correct it.

Invoices already in the right category: leave them. Don't touch what AT already got right.

Cat. A vs Cat. B: how the math differs

For employees (Category A), eFatura deductions are the main way to cut your IRS. Health bills, tuition fees, rent: these flow into Anexo H and reduce IRS. (Dependants and a few other items sit alongside them.)

Freelancers on regime simplificado issuing Recibos Verdes have a second layer.

Under the simplified regime, AT applies a coefficient to your services income. For professions specifically listed in the Art. 151.º table it is 0.75, meaning 75% of your gross is taxable and 25% is assumed to cover business costs. Services the table does not specifically list, including its catch-all code 1519, use 0.35, and both can be lower in your first two years if you have no employment or pension income and no cessação in the five years before. But that assumption has a condition attached: what counts toward it must reach at least 15% of your gross services income, or the gap gets added back as taxable income. A fixed specific deduction of about €4,587.09 (2026) counts automatically, so below roughly €30,580 of gross services income you need nothing else.

Your eFatura professional expenses count toward this requirement. Not your health expenses, not your restaurant meals: only expenses related to your activity that appear on invoices communicated to AT and classified as professional. Business software, professional services, office supplies, subscriptions. Your Social Security contributions count too, up to 10% of your gross, but in place of the specific deduction when they are larger, not on top of it. The part above that is deducted from your taxable income under a separate rule instead.

This is a completely separate flow from Anexo H. A dentist bill with your NIF goes into Saúde, reduces your IRS through Anexo H, and does nothing for the documented expense rule. A software subscription for your business goes into professional expenses, counts toward it, and lands on Anexo B.

The 15% expense rule explainer covers the full calculation with worked examples.

Foreign invoices: the gap

A foreign supplier does not communicate its invoices to AT. Pay a subscription to a Swedish tool, book a flight through a non-Portuguese site, hire a contractor based abroad: no supplier reports any of it to eFatura.

For employees, this rarely matters much: health and education expenses paid abroad you can enter yourself on the Portal das Finanças (CIRS Art. 78.º-C n.º 5 and 78.º-D n.º 8). For freelancers (Cat. B), business purchases from abroad can matter more, and they work differently depending on where the supplier is.

• Goods or services from a supplier in another EU country are declared by you in Anexo B, Quadro 17A, campo 17002 (intra-EU acquisitions). That is in addition to whatever eFatura already holds.
• Services from outside the EU, like a US software subscription or cloud bill, are an open question. It isn't settled whether they have a place in that campo, and we are confirming it with an accountant. We won't promise either way.

Either way, keep the original invoice and proof of payment. A short folder of foreign invoices, kept throughout the year, makes this straightforward, and Portuguese rules ask taxable persons to keep invoices for ten years.

The two deduction mechanics

This is where most explanations either gloss over or get wrong.

Health and education deductions work on the total expense amount. Spend €400 at the dentist, get €60 back (15% of €400). Pay €500 in university fees, get €150 back (30% of €500). The deduction is calculated against the full invoice, up to the cap.

The exigência de fatura and cultural categories work on the IVA component only. Restaurants, hairdressers, car repair, vets, accommodation, and now invoices from issuers registered in the listed cultural sectors (theatre and music, performance venues, libraries, museums, historic sites): for all of these, you get 15% of the IVA amount shown on the invoice. Not 15% of the total.

Most restaurant food in Portugal carries 13% IVA (the intermediate rate; alcoholic and soft drinks stay at the normal rate; see VAT rates in Portugal for the full breakdown by sector). A €50 bill that is all food has €5.75 in IVA. Your deduction is 15% of €5.75 (about €0.86). The deductions accumulate across all your restaurant and hairdresser invoices for the year, but the household cap is €250 in total.

The practical difference: a €500 dental bill generates €75 in IRS credits. €500 in restaurant food across a year generates under €9. Both categories appear in Anexo H. The formula is completely different.

New for 2026: invoices from issuers registered in the listed cultural sectors (theatre and music, performance venues, libraries, museums, historic sites) now also feed into the same mechanic. They don't get a separate ceiling. They count toward the same cap as restaurants and hairdressers. So if you've already maxed it on restaurant meals, adding cultural spending doesn't open new credit.

Common misconceptions

"I'm a freelancer; eFatura doesn't matter for my taxes." It matters in two ways. Personal expenses reduce IRS through Anexo H. If you provide services under the simplified regime, business expenses help satisfy the documented expense rule. Ignoring eFatura means leaving deductions on the table and potentially underproviding the proof.

"All my expenses in eFatura will be deducted." Only the ones associated with your NIF, correctly categorized, within the relevant cap. Expenses over the cap don't create additional deductions. Expenses in the wrong category may be counted under the wrong rate.

"My accountant handles my IRS, so I don't need to review eFatura." Your accountant works with what AT has computed for Anexo H. What AT computes comes from eFatura. If eFatura has wrong categories, AT's figures are wrong, and your accountant files those wrong numbers unless they declare your own values instead. The review step is yours to do, regardless of who files your return.

"Foreign receipts work the same as Portuguese ones." They don't appear in eFatura. If they're business expenses, you declare them yourself, and the right place depends on whether the supplier is in the EU.

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Frequently asked questions

When do I need to categorize my eFatura expenses? By the end of February. That is the cut-off for the invoices AT uses to compute the deductions that feed into Anexo H. AT publishes them by 15 March. A complaint against the general family expenses or exigência de fatura figure can be filed by 31 March, but it does not reach health, education, housing or care homes, which you correct by declaring your own totals on the return.

What if an invoice could fit more than one category? Look at what you actually bought. At a pharmacy, goods at the reduced or exempt VAT rate count as health without a prescription, and goods at the normal rate count only with one. Multi-service venues work the same way: assign the category to what the invoice covers.

What is the exigência de fatura deduction exactly? A credit equal to 15% of the IVA (VAT) shown on invoices from restaurants, hairdressers, car repair, veterinary services, and accommodation. From 2026, also invoices from issuers in the listed cultural sectors (theatre and music, performance venues, libraries, museums, historic sites). The combined annual cap is €250 per household. Not 15% of the total bill: 15% of the VAT portion only.

Do I need to give my NIF at restaurants? Yes, ask for it at the till. Without your NIF the invoice isn't linked to you, unless you register it yourself afterwards using its QR code. That applies to every category.

I'm a freelancer (Cat. B). Does eFatura work differently for me? Yes. Personal expenses feed into Anexo H the same as for an employee. If you provide services as a freelancer under the simplified regime, business expenses classified as professional in eFatura also count toward the documented expense requirement: tracked on Anexo B, not Anexo H. The two flows are entirely separate.

Do foreign expenses appear in eFatura? Not from the issuer: a foreign supplier does not communicate invoices to AT. Personal health and education expenses paid abroad you can enter yourself on the Portal das Finanças (CIRS Art. 78.º-C n.º 5 and 78.º-D n.º 8), or cover by declaring your own totals in Anexo H. For business purchases, a supplier in another EU country is declared by you in Anexo B, Quadro 17A, campo 17002. Services bought from outside the EU are an open question that we are confirming with an accountant.

What happens if I categorize something wrong? AT computes the deductions from what was communicated by the end of February. For health, education, housing and care homes you can replace AT's figures by declaring your household's own totals when you file the Modelo 3 (until June 30), in Anexo H, Quadro 6C1, campo 01. That replaces AT's figures for all of those categories at once, so you enter every category's total, and you need documentation to support them. For the general family expenses and exigência de fatura figures there is no own-totals option on the return; the route the law sets is the complaint by 31 March (CIRS Art. 78.º-B n.º 7, applied to exigência de fatura by Art. 78.º-F n.º 4).

The health deduction and the restaurant deduction: same formula? No. Health is 15% of the total expense amount. Education is 30% of the total expense amount. Restaurants are 15% of the IVA component only. A €500 dental bill generates €75 in credits. €500 in restaurant food at 13% VAT generates under €9. Both land in Anexo H. Different math entirely.

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If you want to understand how eFatura professional expenses factor into the documented expense requirement, the 15% expense rule covers the full calculation. When you're ready to file, the IRS filing guide walks through every annex. And if you want to see what last year's declaration actually contained, the IRS declaration reader translates every campo into something you can read.