Declaração Recapitulativa

The Declaração Recapitulativa (Recapitulative Statement) is the quarterly VAT filing that documents your intra-EU B2B sales. It exists separately from your standard IVA periodic declaration because its primary purpose isn't collecting tax, it's supplying data to the EU's VIES cross-checking network.

When you sell goods or services to a VAT-registered business in another EU member state, no Portuguese IVA is charged, the reverse charge applies and the customer accounts for VAT in their own country. But the transaction still has to be declared somewhere. That somewhere is the Declaração Recapitulativa.

Who files it

Any VAT-registered taxpayer in Portugal who made intra-EU B2B sales during the quarter. That includes sole entrepreneurs on the simplified regime who are VAT-registered, even if they'd otherwise be on the lower end of the compliance load.

Two types of transactions trigger the filing requirement:

• Intra-community supplies of goods: VAT-registered customers in other EU member states, under Article 14 of the RITI
• Intra-community B2B services where reverse charge applies under Article 6 of the CIVA

If you had none of these sales in a given quarter, you don't file for that quarter.

Deadlines

The deadline is the 20th of the month following the quarter end, per Article 30 of the RITI:

Quarter	Period	Deadline
Q1	January to March	April 20
Q2	April to June	July 20
Q3	July to September	October 20
Q4	October to December	January 20 (following year)

These are the same calendar structure as the IVA periodic declaration deadlines, but the Declaração Recapitulativa is a separate filing submitted through a different section of the portal.

What you report

For each customer, you submit three pieces of information:

1. Their VAT number (the full EU format, e.g. DE123456789 or FR12345678901)
2. The total transaction amount in whole euros, rounded to the nearest euro
3. An operation type code that classifies the transaction:
   • Code 1: intra-community supply of goods (Article 14 RITI)
   • Code 4: triangular transaction (you're the intermediary in a three-party intra-EU goods deal)
   • Code 5: intra-community services subject to reverse charge (Article 6 CIVA)

One row per customer per quarter. If you invoiced the same German client four times in Q2, those four invoices collapse into a single row showing the total.

Monthly filing threshold

Quarterly is the default. If your intra-EU supplies exceeded €50,000 in any of the four preceding quarters, you must switch to monthly filing for the Declaração Recapitulativa. This threshold applies to this statement independently of your standard IVA filing frequency.

How it's submitted

Through the Portal das Finanças, under Faturas e Recibos > Declarações. Two routes:

• Portal form: enter each customer row manually
• DR-IVA XML upload: accounting software generates the file, you upload it. The portal validates the XML against the AT schema before accepting it.

VIES and the cross-check

After submission, your values enter the EU VIES database. Tax authorities in other member states can see what you declared and compare it against what your customers declared on their end.

A mismatch doesn't automatically mean a penalty. But it does prompt a query from the AT or the customer's national tax authority. The most common causes are a customer using a different VAT number than the one on your invoice, an amount reported in a different quarter, or a rounding difference. The filing is designed to be correctable.

Correcting a prior filing

If a customer cancels an order, you later discover an error, or the declared amounts change, you can file a substitute declaration (declaração de substituição) for the affected period. The substitute replaces the original, and the corrected values update VIES accordingly.

Where this fits in the Descodify workflow

The Recapitulative Statement workflow in Descodify, accessible at /reports/recap, pulls your intra-EU invoices for the period and builds the declaration from the VAT numbers and amounts already on file.