How to Correct or Contest Your IRS in Portugal (Reclamação Graciosa)

Sometimes the Demonstração de Liquidação arrives and the number is wrong. Sometimes it’s right, but only because of a choice you made on the form that you now regret. Portuguese tax law gives you several ways to put it right. Which one applies depends on two things: when you spot it, and whose mistake it was.

This guide covers the IRS of residents: the Modelo 3 and the liquidation the tax office (AT) makes from it.

This happened to us

In my first year as a freelancer, our accountant suggested filing with the NHR 20% rate on the freelance income. The bill came back about five times what the same income cost at the normal rates with our joint deductions — under NHR, none of the deductions count against the 20% tax. After the June deadline we filed a substitute declaration without the Anexo L, which taxes the income at the normal rates (englobamento). The AT didn’t process it and sent a payment note for the NHR version, due in mid-September.

In late August, before that payment date, we filed a reclamação graciosa on Portal das Finanças. It was four sentences long, in plain Portuguese, without a single article of law:

Venho por este meio solicitar a anulação da nota de cobrança [n.º], uma vez que entreguei nova declaração sem o anexo L de Residente não Habitual, o qual dá-me uma liquidação segundo o simulador de [valor] claramente mais favorável para mim, e que segundo o Código do IRS o contribuinte pode sempre escolher a tributação que lhe for mais favorável. Assim sendo, solicito que anulem a presente cobrança e validem a última declaração enviada.

The AT then issued a new liquidation from our substitute declaration, for a fifth of the NHR bill. The reclamação itself still shows “A aguardar decisão” in the portal three years later: the outcome came as a new liquidation, not as a decision letter.

The law supports that path: nothing in the IRS code puts a deadline on choosing englobamento, and arbitration courts have said the same about other late options. The rest of this guide is what we learned, with the legal grounds we could have cited.

Which route, by when

Situation	Route	Deadline
You spot a mistake by 30 June	Substitute declaration	30 June, no fine
You spot it between 1 and 30 July	Substitute declaration	30 July
Your own mistake made you pay too much, after that	Substitute declaration and a reclamação graciosa	120 days from the payment deadline to be safe; up to 2 years from 30 June for an error in your declaration
You disagree with the assessment itself	Reclamação graciosa	120 days from the end of the payment deadline
The AT’s mistake, spotted late	Pedido de revisão oficiosa	4 years from the liquidation
Your own mistake means you owe more	Substitute declaration	Until 60 days before the AT’s right to assess runs out (3–4 years), with interest and possibly a fine
Reclamação rejected	Recurso hierárquico, or court, or tax arbitration (CAAD)	30 days / 3 months / 90 days from the decision
No answer to the reclamação after 4 months	Treat it as rejected and go further, or keep waiting	3 months (court) / 90 days (CAAD) from the 4-month mark

For 2025 income, filed by 30 June 2026 with tax payable by 31 August 2026, that means: the 120-day reclamação window runs to 29 December 2026, and the 2-year window for errors in your own declaration to 30 June 2028. If your liquidation showed a refund rather than tax to pay, count the 120 days from the day you were notified, to be safe.

Fixing it with a substitute declaration

A declaração de substituição is a new Modelo 3 that replaces the one you filed. You submit it through the same Entregar Declaração service, tick “Declaração de Substituição” in quadro 10 of the Rosto, and send the whole declaration again with every annex, including the ones that were right.

• Until 30 June: change anything, as often as you like. No fine.
• 1 to 30 July: still allowed whatever the state of the earlier declaration (CPPT art. 59 n.º 3 b) I). The AT says a correction after 30 June “may” mean a fine, “depending on the effects of the correction” — a correction that lowers your tax is the case where a waiver is most likely.
• Later, when the correction lowers your tax: allowed until the reclamação or court deadline for that liquidation runs out (n.º 3 b) II). If the AT doesn’t process it, the law turns it into a reclamação graciosa and tells you so (n.º 5).
• Later, when the correction raises your tax: allowed until 60 days before the AT’s right to assess runs out (n.º 3 b) III). Expect compensatory interest at 4% a year, and possibly a fine — cut to 12.5% of the legal minimum if you correct it yourself before the AT acts and pay within 30 days.

Changing an option after the deadline

Joint or separate filing, englobamento instead of a special rate, NHR or not: these are choices on the form, and the AT’s systems often refuse to change them once 30 June has passed. The law is on your side more than the system is:

• The IRS code puts no deadline on the englobamento option (CIRS art. 72 n.º 13). Choosing it pulls in all the income of that category (art. 22 n.º 5).
• Since 2017 there is also no deadline on the joint-filing option. In CAAD case 418/2018-T, a couple chose joint filing in a substitute filed in December of the following year; the tribunal held that the option was valid, that “the error is in the system”, and annulled the liquidation.
• In CAAD case 562/2022-T the facts look like ours: the AT ignored a substitute declaration filed in August, the taxpayer filed a reclamação graciosa, and the AT upheld it.

So if the substitute is rejected or simply ignored, don’t file another one: file a reclamação graciosa within the deadline, citing those rules.

If the AT flags a “divergência”

A divergência means the AT found a difference between what you declared and what it has on file, or needs proof of something. It tells you by letter, through the Caixa Postal Eletrónica, or in your Portal area. Find it under Consultar Divergências. If your figures are right, answer with Enviar justificação and attach documents; if you made a mistake, file a substitute declaration.

Filing a reclamação graciosa on Portal das Finanças

A reclamação graciosa asks the AT to annul its own liquidation, in full or in part. It’s free (the AT can add up to 5% of the tax at stake only when a claim had no reasonable grounds), you don’t need a lawyer, and you can argue any illegality: income in the wrong category, a deduction left out, an option the system refused.

1. Log in to Portal das Finanças.

2. Open the service. Search for “Contencioso Administrativo”. The menu has Consulta, Instauração and Desistência de Contencioso Administrativo, plus a separate service for the March complaints about e-Fatura expenses (Instauração de contencioso sobre Deduções à Coleta). Choose Instauração de Contencioso Administrativo (the AT’s own pages label the link “Apresentar reclamação graciosa”). For the type of document, choose Instauração Processo – Reclamação Graciosa (art.º 70.º do CPPT).

3. Upload your reclamação as a signed PDF, with the documents that support it. Documents are the only evidence a reclamação takes — no witnesses — so attach everything:

   • the Demonstração de Liquidação you’re contesting;
   • the original declaration and any substitute, with their comprovativos;
   • proof of payment, if you paid;
   • anything that proves the facts (for an NHR case, your NHR registration and the Anexo L).

   If there are many documents, file in person at a Serviço de Finanças (book through Atendimento Presencial por Marcação) or by registered post with acknowledgement of receipt instead of squeezing them into one upload. By post, the date of registration counts.

4. Keep the receipt. The portal issues one with the date, time and registration number. That date is your filing date.

5. Follow the case under Consulta de Contencioso Administrativo. Search by year and status (Situação); the result shows the type of process, its number, the date it was opened, the tax and its status. Open it for the tabs Tramitação (each step so far), Objeto (the liquidation and payment note you’re contesting, with its amount and payment deadline), Fundamentos (what you wrote), Contribuintes and Mandatário, and any related enforcement or fine proceedings. The Comprovativo button there gives you the filing receipt again.

What to write

The reclamação must be in Portuguese (CPA art. 54). It doesn’t need legal language, but it does need these parts (CPA art. 102):

1. Who it’s addressed to: “Exmo. Senhor Diretor de Finanças de [district]”.
2. Who you are: names, NIFs and tax address of every taxpayer on the declaration (both spouses on a joint return), and an e-mail or phone.
3. Which act you’re contesting: the liquidation number and date, the income year, the amount, the payment deadline and whether you paid. Also the identification and date of each declaration and substitute.
4. The facts, in date order.
5. The legal grounds, with the articles. For a late option, for example: CPPT art. 59 n.º 3 b) II and n.º 5; CIRS art. 140 n.º 2; CIRS art. 72 n.º 13 and art. 22 n.º 5 (englobamento) or art. 59 n.º 2 (joint filing); CAAD 418/2018-T.
6. The request (pedido), “em termos claros e precisos”: annul liquidation no. X, wholly or in the part above €Y; issue a new liquidation based on the substitute declaration of [date]; refund the difference with juros indemnizatórios.
7. Date and signature.

Ours was four sentences and worked, because the AT only had to process a declaration it already had. When there’s more at stake, give it the full structure. A starting point, to adapt to your case:

Exmo. Senhor Diretor de Finanças de [distrito],

[Nome], NIF […], e [Nome], NIF […], residentes em [morada], vêm, nos termos do artigo 70.º do CPPT e do artigo 140.º do CIRS, apresentar reclamação graciosa da liquidação de IRS n.º […], relativa aos rendimentos de [ano] (nota de cobrança n.º […], no valor de €[…], com data limite de pagamento [data]).

Em [data], entregaram declaração de substituição, sem o anexo L, optando pelo englobamento dos rendimentos da categoria B (artigos 72.º, n.º 13, e 22.º, n.º 5, do CIRS). Essa declaração não foi considerada na liquidação.

A opção pelo englobamento não está sujeita a prazo, e a declaração de substituição foi entregue dentro do prazo do artigo 59.º, n.º 3, alínea b), II), do CPPT.

Pedem a anulação da liquidação n.º […] e a emissão de nova liquidação com base na declaração de substituição de [data], com a restituição do imposto pago em excesso, acrescido de juros indemnizatórios, se devidos.

[Local e data] · [Assinaturas]

The Order of Certified Accountants (OCC) also publishes a model reclamação in its practical guide.

What happens next

• Instruction: your local Serviço de Finanças looks at the case within 90 days and proposes a decision.
• Your right to be heard: before rejecting it in full or in part, the AT must send you the draft decision. You have 15 days to reply in writing or in person (the AT can extend this to 25). Use it: the AT has to consider anything new you raise.
• The decision is due within 4 months. If it hasn’t come, the law presumes a rejection so you can go further (LGT art. 57), though the AT still has to decide.
• If it’s upheld, the AT annuls the liquidation and issues a new one. Any tax you overpaid comes back as a credit note.
• Or the AT just fixes it. When the reclamação is about a declaration it already has, it may simply liquidate that declaration, as in our case. Watch Consultar Declaração and your notifications for a new liquidation, not only the reclamação’s status.

Do you have to pay while it’s pending?

A reclamação doesn’t stop collection on its own. If there’s tax to pay, the AT can start enforcement after the payment deadline unless you give a guarantee or get one waived (ask for the waiver within 15 days of filing). For an individual’s debt under €5,000, enforcement is suspended automatically for up to 120 days after the payment deadline.

Often the simplest course is to pay and claim it back. It avoids late-payment interest (7.221% a year in 2026) and enforcement costs, and if you win, the money comes back.

If the reclamação is rejected

You have three ways forward, all counted from the notice of the decision (or from the 4-month mark if there was no decision):

• Recurso hierárquico — within 30 days, to the superior of whoever decided, through the same Instauração de Contencioso Administrativo service. It’s free and doesn’t need a lawyer, the decision is due in 60 days, and you can still go to court afterwards. It’s optional.
• Impugnação judicial — within 3 months, at the tax court. A lawyer is mandatory, whatever the amount. In 2026 the court fee is about €102 for claims up to €2,000, rising to €714 for €40,000–€60,000.
• Tax arbitration at CAAD — within 90 days, online. Also needs a lawyer. For claims up to €60,000 CAAD appoints a single arbitrator and the fee runs from €306 (up to €2,000) to €2,142 (€40,000–€60,000), half paid up front; the loser pays. In 2024 CAAD took four and a half months on average to decide.

For a mistake in your own declaration, a court case has to be preceded by a reclamação graciosa (CIRS art. 140 n.º 2), so you can’t skip that step.

When the tax office made the mistake

If the AT got the facts or the law wrong — ignored data it had, miscounted, applied the wrong rule — and the 120 days have passed, you can ask for a revisão oficiosa within 4 years of the liquidation, or at any time while the tax is unpaid (LGT art. 78). File it as a request through e-balcão. It’s a weak route for a mistake that was purely yours, such as an option you ticked: the courts read “error by the services” as one that didn’t come from your own declaration, unless you were following the AT’s own published instructions.

Sources

• CPPT arts. 5, 6, 39, 59, 61, 66–77, 102, 169–170 (procedure, substitute declarations, reclamação graciosa, recurso hierárquico, impugnação, suspension of collection)
• LGT arts. 35, 43, 44, 52, 57, 60, 78 (interest, guarantees, decision deadlines, right to be heard, revisão)
• CIRS arts. 22 n.º 5, 59 n.º 2, 72 n.º 13, 140 n.º 2
• CPA arts. 54, 102, 104, 106 (language, content of the request, filing)
• RJAT (Decreto-Lei 10/2011) arts. 5, 6, 10 and CAAD’s Tabela I of arbitration fees
• CAAD decisions 418/2018-T, 562/2022-T, 401/2020-T and 36/2020-T
• AT, “Como exercer os meus direitos de defesa?” and its May 2026 leaflet on IRS divergências
• IGCP Aviso 18/2026 (late-payment interest rate for 2026)