No plenary session today at the Assembly of the Republic, lawmakers revisited a vote on the PS proposal at the specialty level, following a request for reconsideration by the socialist bench after the initiative was rejected in the Budget, Finance, and Public Administration Committee vote, held last week on July 10.
In the new evaluation today, the PS received favorable votes from Livre, PAN, and JPP. The rejection resulted from votes against by PSD, Chega, CDS-PP, and abstentions from IL, PCP, and BE.
The PS aimed to ensure the law would state that a young worker up to 35 years could benefit from IRS Jovem while still being able to request the salary bonus payment from the Tax and Customs Authority (AT).
The incentive was established by António Costa’s government in 2023 to allow young workers up to the year they turn 35 to receive a grant equivalent to tuition fees as recognition for completing a bachelor’s or master’s degree.
To justify the PSD’s opposition, deputy Hugo Carneiro stated during today’s debate that currently, both measures are already cumulative. Hence, in the social-democratic bench’s opinion, it is unnecessary to legislate that both measures can be jointly utilized by the same taxpayer.
“This law only serves to deceive people,” said PSD deputy Carneiro, arguing that the PS’s proposed wording would cast doubt on whether the two measures were previously non-cumulative. The PSD bench criticized the PS initiative as baseless.
Conversely, PAN deputy Inês Sousa Real argued for a desirable “clarification” in the law.
On behalf of the PS bench, deputy and JS leader Sofia Pereira supported the measure, calling it a “surgical proposal to restore justice and truth.”
Despite an ordinance stating the official deadline for submitting requests on the ePortugal portal runs until the end of May, applications for the 2025 salary bonus have not yet opened, leading the deputy to accuse the Government of shelving the salary bonus initiative.
Currently, when consulting the official Gov.pt site about this incentive, the provided information reads: “At this moment, new requests for the salary bonus for qualification enhancement are not being accepted. The deadline for submitting requests in 2025 has not yet been announced.”
Nonetheless, during last week’s finance committee debate, PSD deputy Hugo Carneiro confirmed that the salary bonus remains in effect, stating that “the Government will announce its intentions on this matter when deemed appropriate during 2025.”
The salary bonus is paid annually by Finance over the number of years equivalent to the study cycle that led to the academic degree award.
For a bachelor’s degree, the amount paid is 697 euros, whereas for a master’s degree, it is 1,500 euros (in an integrated master’s, the years related to the bachelor’s degree receive 697 euros and those pertaining to the master’s the same 1,500 euros).
IRS Jovem is a special tax regime allowing taxpayers to enjoy reduced IRS through partial tax exemption on a portion of annual income. This exemption varies over time, with the tax incentive period lasting up to ten years, provided the beneficiaries’ age does not surpass 35 years.
