Recibos Verdes - What Business Expenses Can You Deduct in Portugal (2026)

If you’re a freelancer (recibos verdes) in Portugal under the simplified regime, the law presumes 25% of your gross is “expenses” and taxes only the remaining 75%. But there’s a catch: 15% of your gross income must actually be invoice-justified on Portal e-Fatura - otherwise the unjustified shortfall gets added back to your taxable income.

This guide explains exactly what counts as deductible Cat B expenses, what to log on e-Fatura, and the priority items every freelancer should track. (Just opened activity? See the first-year guide for the IRS reduction and SS exemption that stack on top of these.)

The 15% rule - explained

CIRS art. 31, n.º 13 introduced the 15% justification requirement to stop people from using simplified regime as a free 25% expense deduction without any actual expenses.

required = grossIncome × 15% autoCovered = €4,587.09 (Cat A specific deduction equivalent) shortfallToJustify = max(0, required − autoCovered)

If your invoiced expenses ≥ shortfallToJustify → no penalty If your invoiced expenses < shortfallToJustify → unjustified amount added back to taxable income

The good news for low-income freelancers: at €30,580 gross or below, the auto-covered specific deduction alone covers the requirement - you don’t need to track any business expense receipts at all to avoid the add-back penalty.

Above that, you need to actually log receipts. The tables below show what counts.

High-priority items - track these

These are what a typical professional-services freelancer (consultant, designer, doctor, lawyer, IT specialist) should track on e-Fatura:

Mid-priority items

Worth tracking if you have meaningful spend in these areas:

Lower-priority items

These count too, but are smaller in € impact for most freelancers:

• Client meals and entertainment - Lunch / dinner with a documented client, Coffee meetings with prospects, etc.Often the most-audited category. Keep notes about who you met, why, and what was discussed — restaurant receipts alone get challenged.
• Office supplies and consumables - Printer ink, paper, Pens, notebooks, organizational supplies, etc.
• Business-related insurance - Professional liability insurance, Equipment insurance for high-value gear, etc.

How to log expenses on Portal e-Fatura

The full walkthrough with screenshots is in the categorize e-Fatura receipts how-to. Quick version:

1. Always ask “fatura com NIF” at the moment of purchase
2. Within ~30 days of issue, log into faturas.portaldasfinancas.gov.pt
3. Reclassify any receipts that auto-categorized incorrectly. Receipts default to whichever category the merchant’s CAE code suggests, which is often wrong.
4. For activity-related expenses, the category to use is usually “Despesas atividade profissional” (professional-activity expenses)
5. For training expenses, use “Educação” - they count both for personal IRS deductions AND Cat B justification

After 30 days the categorization is locked. Plan to do this monthly.

What gets you audited

AT audits Cat B filings disproportionately when:

• Total expenses exceed 25% of gross in the simplified regime - that contradicts the 75/25 presumption and triggers a flag
• Restaurant expenses are unusually high without client documentation
• Home-office utilities at 100% - should be proportional (typically 30-50%)
• Round-number expenses that look like estimates rather than actual receipts
• First-year freelancers with claimed deductions but no Cat B coefficient reduction (suggests they’re trying to game the system)

If audited, you need to produce:

• The original receipts (paper or PDF)
• A mapping of business purpose for each (esp. meals and travel)
• For mixed-use items (home office, phone), justification of the business-use percentage

Worked example: €50,000 freelancer

Required justification = €50,000 × 15% = €7,500

Auto-covered by €4,587 specific deduction → still need €2,913 in real invoiced expenses.

A typical professional services freelancer easily clears this with:

• Office / coworking: €1,200/year
• Internet + phone: €600/year
• Software subscriptions: €800/year (Adobe, GitHub, etc.)
• Professional fees / Ordem dues: €400/year
• Training: €600/year (one conference, two online courses)
• Total: €3,600 ✅ exceeds the €2,913 shortfall

If you DON’T track receipts at €50k, the unjustified shortfall (€2,913) gets added back to your taxable income, costing roughly €1,000 in extra IRS (at marginal 34.9% rate). That’s a real loss for not spending 5 minutes a month on e-Fatura.

Cost of not tracking expenses at €50k gross

~€1,000 / year

Filing the receipts on your IRS

Cat B receipts feed into Anexo B of Modelo 3 at annual settlement. AT auto-pulls them from e-Fatura, but you should reconcile your own ledger before submitting - overlooked receipts cost real IRS.

What above €200,000? Switch to organized accounting

The simplified regime only applies up to €200,000 gross / year. Above that, you’re forced into contabilidade organizada (organized accounting), which:

• Requires a contabilista certificado (mandatory)
• Records actual expenses, not the 25% presumption
• Lets you deduct all business expenses individually
• More paperwork, but better tax outcomes for high earners with real costs

If your gross is approaching €200k and you have substantial real business expenses (>25% of gross), switching voluntarily can save tax even before the threshold forces it.

Run your scenario

The TAXCLARA calculator has a “Business expenses are invoice-justified” checkbox in the freelancer settings. Tick it if you track receipts; uncheck to see the add-back penalty applied to your taxable base. The math reflects the rule precisely.

For mid-to-high income freelancers, the toggle reveals exactly how much tax you’re leaving on the table by not tracking expenses.

Sources

• CIRS art. 31 - Regime simplificado
• Portal e-Fatura - Categorize receipts
• Doutor Finanças - Justificação de despesas regime simplificado
• OCC - IRS regime simplificado