Filing your IRS in the Algarve: a practical guide for expat freelancers

The Algarve has one of the highest concentrations of expat freelancers in Portugal. English speakers in Lagos, Faro, Portimão, Albufeira, and Tavira are all working online (consulting, designing, writing, building) and every April they face the same question: what do I actually need to do for my IRS?

The answer is less complicated than the local Facebook groups make it seem. Here's the practical version.

What you're actually filing

If you're a freelancer earning income through Recibos Verdes (Portugal's self-employment invoicing system) you're filing a Modelo 3 IRS declaration for the 2025 tax year. The filing window runs from April 1 to June 30, 2026.

The form lives entirely online at Portal das Finanças. Nothing gets mailed. Nothing requires going to a local tax office (the repartição de finanças in Faro or wherever). Your declaration is submitted digitally and that's that.

The Algarve-specific dynamic

The Algarve expat scene has a particular dynamic worth naming: many people offering IRS filing help in local communities aren't certified accountants (contabilistas certificados). They're consultants, fiscal representatives, or experienced expats who've been through the process themselves and started helping others for €200-400 a year.

Many do solid work. But it's worth understanding the difference: a contabilista certificado registered with the Ordem dos Contabilistas Certificados (OCC) is regulated, insured, and bound by professional standards. Someone who isn't may still do a perfectly good job, they're just not accountable in the same way.

This is worth knowing when deciding whether to hire someone, what to pay, and what questions to ask.

Who needs to file

You're a Portuguese tax resident if you spend more than 183 days in Portugal in any 12-month period that starts or ends in the year, or if you hold a home here with the intention of keeping it as your habitual residence. A resident with registered self-employment income (Recibos Verdes, freelance services) files an IRS return every year, whatever the amount.

Other income, such as Portuguese rental, pension or investment income, can also need a return. Some small amounts, or income already fully taxed at source, are excused from filing, so check yours before assuming either way.

If your residence status changed during 2025, you file one declaration for each status: worldwide income for the period you were resident, and Portuguese income only for the period you were not.

Non-residents with rental income from Portuguese property are a different situation, and this guide doesn't cover it.

What you need before you start

Portal das Finanças credentials. Your NIF and either your AT password or Chave Móvel Digital (CMD). If you've never logged in before, get this sorted well before June.

Your invoicing record. The Recibos Verdes you issued on the Portal in 2025 are visible there. If you issued your invoices through other software, use that software's records. Either way, total your gross income for the year. This is your primary input.

Your e-fatura expenses. If you paid for professional expenses in 2025, software subscriptions, a co-working space in Lagos, professional training, and those invoices were issued to your NIF, and AT received those invoices, they're in e-fatura. The cut-off for classifying them as business expenses was the end of February, so in April the question is whether AT's figures look right. If they don't, Anexo B (Quadro 17) is where you declare your own expense figures, and doing that replaces AT's figure, so you enter the totals.

Social Security contribution records. If you made Social Security declarations in 2025, you'll reference those for Anexo SS. Log in to Segurança Social Direta to pull your records.

Your previous comprovativo (if you've filed before). Not required, but your 2024 comprovativo is the fastest orientation for this year's filing, it shows exactly which annexes you filed and what the structure looked like. If you want to read it in plain language, the IRS declaration reader does that, upload your comprovativo PDF and it walks you through every field.

The annexes you're filing

Most Algarve expat freelancers will file three or four of these:

Rosto: the cover page. Fiscal year, your NIF, household composition, your tax regime. Fill this first.

Anexo B: self-employment income. On the simplified regime (regime simplificado), you enter your gross income and the system applies a coefficient. For activities listed in the Art. 151 table (many consultants, designers and programmers) the coefficient is 0.75, meaning 75% of your gross becomes taxable. Other services use a lower coefficient. The system runs the math, but there is a catch: you need documented expenses worth a minimum share of your gross services income, or the shortfall is added to your taxable income. The expense rule explainer covers it. For a campo-by-campo breakdown of every field, see the Anexo B field guide.

Anexo SS: Social Security reconciliation. Filed alongside Anexo B. Mandatory for every freelancer declaring self-employment income. It reconciles your declared income against your SS contributions.

Anexo H: tax benefits and deductions. Pre-filled from your e-fatura data. Review it, health and education expenses often appear here, but so do errors. Some invoices you paid in Portimão or Albufeira might not show up if the vendor never submitted them to AT.

Anexo J: for income obtained outside Portuguese territory. Work carried out abroad, a foreign pension, dividends from foreign companies, a foreign rental. Whether freelance work you do while living here for clients abroad also belongs in Anexo J is a question to confirm with an accountant. We don't claim either way.

Anexo L: if you're on NHR or IFICI. If you benefit from the old Non-Habitual Resident regime, or from the new IFICI regime (the NHR replacement), this annex is where you declare it.

For most Algarve freelancers with Recibos Verdes income only, no foreign pension, and no NHR: Rosto + Anexo B + Anexo SS + Anexo H. That's it.

The timeline

April 1 – June 30: Filing window open. There's no reason to wait for the last week. Filing early leaves you time to fix problems before the deadline.

By the end of February (already past by now): That is the cut-off for the invoices AT uses to compute your deductions, and the date by which you can indicate your household composition on the Portal. If you skipped it, you can still declare your household on the Modelo 3, and where AT's deduction figures are wrong you can declare your own values for health, education and housing.

June 30: The deadline. AT has granted extensions in some years, so never plan around one. Late filing is punishable by a coima (fine) of €150 to €3,750 (RGIT Art. 116.º), reduced to €25 if you ask to pay it before AT acts (RGIT Arts. 26.º n.º 3 and 30.º).

What happens when you submit

AT processes your declaration and issues your assessment (nota de liquidação) by 31 July. If you owe tax, you pay it by 31 August. If you're due a refund, it is paid by the same date to the IBAN you have on record with AT.

AT may also request additional documents (pedido de elementos) if something looks unusual. Respond within the deadline they give you.

Do you need local help?

Probably not, if your situation is what most Algarve expat freelancers have: Recibos Verdes income only, no foreign assets, no rental income, no NHR status, no major life changes in 2025.

The situations that genuinely benefit from professional help: significant foreign income across multiple countries, NHR or IFICI claims, property sales, or income from multiple activity categories that interact in non-obvious ways.

If you do hire someone, the OCC credential matters, as covered above, a contabilista certificado is regulated and insured in ways that informal helpers aren't.

Filing it yourself

The IRS declaration reader is free and works entirely in your browser, upload your previous comprovativo and it explains every field in plain language. No sign-up required.

If you want to go further, generate your actual Modelo 3 XML and download it for submission to Portal das Finanças, that's what Descodify's IRS filing flow does. It's free during early access.

For a complete step-by-step walkthrough of the filing process itself, see How to file your IRS in Portugal.