How to File Your Quarterly IVA Return in Portugal (Q2 Due 21 Sep)

The quarterly IVA return is the filing freelancers most often get wrong by timing rather than content: three of the four returns land on a predictable rhythm, and the fourth doesn’t. This guide is the table to keep beside the screen — every 2026 date, which boxes on the form a recibos-verdes freelancer actually fills in, what the Portal now fills in for you, and what it costs to be late. If you want the whole tax picture for self-employed work first, start with the freelancer tax guide.

When is the quarterly IVA return due in Portugal?

By the 20th of the second month after each quarter, with payment by the 25th of the same month — except the second quarter, which the CIVA pushes to 20 September (declaration) and 25 September (payment). In 2026 the 20th is a Sunday, so the return is due Monday 21 September; the AT’s own calendar note moves any deadline that falls on a weekend or holiday to the next business day.

Quarter (2026)	Return due	Payment due
Q1 · January–March	Wed 20 May	Mon 25 May
Q2 · April–June	Mon 21 September	Fri 25 September
Q3 · July–September	Fri 20 November	Wed 25 November
Q4 · October–December	Mon 22 February 2027	Thu 25 February 2027

This is the férias fiscais rule: IVA obligations that would fall in August are deferred to September by law, in the CIVA since 2023. It is exactly why this is the deadline people miss — it breaks the rhythm you learn from the other three. The deadlines page carries all four, and the email reminders fire a week ahead.

Who has to file the quarterly IVA return?

Anyone registered for IVA under the normal regime whose turnover in the previous calendar year was below €650,000 — which is every freelancer above the art. 53.º exemption threshold. Above €650,000 you file monthly; below the art. 53.º threshold (€15,000) you are in the exemption regime and file no periodic return at all.

Two clarifications that prevent common confusion. First, this is the IVA quarterly — a separate obligation from the quarterly Segurança Social declaration, which has its own dates (next: 31 October) and its own portal. Second, a quarterly filer may opt into monthly filing by express declaration, but nobody does this by accident; if you haven’t opted, you’re quarterly.

Do I have to file if I invoiced nothing this quarter?

Yes. Art. 29.º n.º 2 of the CIVA keeps the obligation alive “mesmo que não haja, no período correspondente, operações tributáveis” — the return is due even with zero taxable operations. Tick Quadro 05, “Inexistência de operações”, and submit — but if you are carrying a credit from the previous quarter, the form instructions still want it in campo 61 and your choice in 95 or 96, even on a nil return. The empty return you didn’t think you needed is the most common way a freelancer collects a late-filing fine.

Where do my recibos verdes go on the form?

Everything a freelancer enters lives in Quadro 06, and for most people it comes down to two fields for sales and one for expenses. Your services at the standard rate go in campo 3 (the base) and campo 4 (the 23% IVA you charged); the IVA you paid on business purchases goes in campo 24. The form’s own labels, in Portuguese, with what they mean:

Field	Form label	What goes here
1 / 2	Transmissões … à taxa reduzida	Base and IVA of anything you sold at 6% (rare for services)
5 / 6	… à taxa intermédia	Base and IVA at 13% (also rare)
3 / 4	… à taxa normal	Your recibos verdes: total invoiced (3) and the 23% IVA on it (4)
7	Transmissões intracomunitárias … e prestações de serviços	Services to business clients in other EU countries (not taxed here under art. 6.º n.º 6 a) — these also go on the declaração recapitulativa
8 / 9	Isentas ou não tributadas	Exempt or untaxed sales that keep your right to deduct (8) — services to business clients outside the EU, reverse-charge operations — or that don’t (9)
16 / 17	Prestações de serviços … de outros Estados-Membros	Services you bought from EU businesses where you self-assess the IVA (SaaS subscriptions, most often): base in 16, IVA in 17
20	Ativos não correntes	Deductible IVA on equipment (a laptop)
21 / 23 / 22	Inventários	Deductible IVA on goods for resale, by rate — usually empty for services
24	Outros bens e serviços	Deductible IVA on your ordinary expenses — software, accountant, phone, coworking
40 / 41	Regularizações	Corrections in your favour (40) or the State’s (41) — credit notes, mostly
61	Excesso a reportar do período anterior	The credit you carried forward from your last return (its campo 96)
93	Imposto a entregar ao Estado	What you owe: 92 − 91
94	Crédito a recuperar	Your credit if deductions exceed IVA charged: 91 − 92 — then choose 95 (request refund) or 96 (carry forward, becomes next quarter’s 61)

A worked example, for a freelancer who invoiced €9,000 of services in the quarter and paid €400 (before IVA) in deductible business expenses, all at 23%:

• Campo 3: 9,000 · Campo 4: 2,070 (the IVA you charged)
• Campo 24: 92 (the IVA on the €400 of expenses — you enter the tax, not the expense base)
• Campo 92 (total in the State’s favour) = 2,070 · Campo 91 (total in your favour) = 92
• Campo 93 — imposto a entregar: €1,978

Two things the example hides. The EU-service reverse charge (fields 16/17) is a wash for most freelancers: you self-assess the IVA in 17 and deduct the same amount through 24, so the net effect is zero, but both entries are required. And campo 24 is the deductible IVA, not the amount you spent — entering the €400 there overstates your deduction fivefold.

Will the Portal pre-fill the return for me?

If you are on the quarterly normal regime, without organised accounting, and issued every invoice or fatura-recibo of the period on the Portal das Finanças, the sales side of Quadro 06 arrives pre-filled — from the start of the last month of the filing window, which for Q2 means from 1 September. That is the typical recibos-verdes freelancer, and the pre-fill uses the invoices you issued: base and IVA at each rate.

Three limits to know. The pre-filled fields are editable and remain your responsibility — check them against your own records. The AT describes pre-filling of the sales fields only, so treat campo 24 and the other deduction fields as yours to enter. And the condition is that every invoice of the period was issued on the Portal — if some came from your own invoicing software, don’t expect a pre-filled return.

How do I submit it on the Portal das Finanças?

How do I pay what the return says I owe?

Take the payment reference from Obter documento de pagamento and pay it by the 25th — homebanking, Multibanco or MB Way all work, and the bank-app payment guide walks through each, including paying from a foreign account. If the return shows a credit (campo 94), you choose between requesting a refund (campo 95) and carrying it forward (campo 96); carried-forward credit becomes campo 61 of your next return and reduces that quarter’s bill.

What happens if I file or pay late?

A late or missing return is a fine of €150 to €3,750 (RGIT art. 116.º), and late payment of the IVA itself carries a separate fine of 15% to half of the tax owed for negligence (art. 114.º n.º 2). The form has a “Fora do prazo” box in Quadro 02 for exactly this situation, and filing under it promptly is worth real money: under RGIT art. 30.º, if you regularise before any notice, complaint or inspection is opened, the fine is reduced to 12.5% of the legal minimum — €18.75 on a late return — provided you pay it within 30 days. Once an inspection is under way the reduction drops to 50% of the minimum. Late and self-reported is a rounding error; late and discovered is not.

I read there’s a new IVA return form — does it change this filing?

No. Portaria n.º 298/2026/1 (16 July) approved a revised return model, but its general effect starts with tax periods beginning 1 July 2027. Only two exceptions apply earlier, from periods starting 1 July 2026: a checkbox for IVA groups (Lei n.º 62/2025) and new regularisation lines for the housing package (verba 2.42 of Lista I). Neither touches a freelancer’s Q2 2026 return, which covers April to June. The AT’s Ofício-Circulado 25119/2026 says so explicitly. File on the form the Portal gives you; nothing has changed for you this quarter.

The honest summary

Four returns a year, three of them on a rhythm and one that isn’t: Q2 is 21 September, not August. Your recibos go in campos 3 and 4, your deductible IVA in campo 24 as the tax rather than the spend, and a quarter with no invoices still needs a return with Quadro 05 ticked. The Portal now fills the sales side for most freelancers — check it, add your expenses, validate, submit, and pay by the 25th.

Sources

• CIVA artigo 41.º — prazos de entrega da declaração periódica (Portal das Finanças)
• CIVA artigo 27.º — pagamento do imposto (Portal das Finanças)
• CIVA artigo 29.º — obrigações declarativas, incl. n.º 2 nil returns (Portal das Finanças)
• RGIT artigo 116.º — falta ou atraso de declarações (Portal das Finanças)
• RGIT artigo 114.º — falta de entrega da prestação tributária (Portal das Finanças)
• RGIT artigo 30.º — direito à redução das coimas (Portal das Finanças)
• AT FAQ — IVA › Declaração Periódica › Preenchimento, incl. declarações de substituição (Portal das Finanças)
• AT — Resumo anual das obrigações declarativas 2026, incl. the weekend/holiday note (Portal das Finanças)
• AT — Disponível pré-preenchimento da declaração periódica de IVA (Portal das Finanças)
• Declaração periódica de IVA — form and filling instructions (Portal das Finanças, PDF)
• Ofício-Circulado 25119/2026 — alterações à declaração periódica com efeitos a partir de 1 de julho de 2026 (AT, PDF)
• Portal das Finanças — Declaração periódica do IVA service menu