During a press conference at the parliament on the final day for parties to submit amendments to the 2026 State Budget, IL parliamentary leader Mário Amorim Lopes expressed the party’s desire to provide Portugal with “the country it deserves, where everyone can live and no one is left behind.”
“For this, we must have a national design, not just a Liberal Initiative design. It’s time to have a national goal, which is to make Portugal grow. It cannot be a partisan issue; it must be an issue for everyone,” he urged.
Mário Amorim Lopes announced that the party would push for a “significant” reduction in IRS through a two-rate model—15% (income up to 22,635 euros) and 30% (above 22,635 euros)—aiming to “take the rope off Portuguese families’ necks and allow businesses to grow.”
“The current proposal from the parties backing the government results in a 2 euro reduction per month for a 1,200 euro salary, considering 14 salary months. Our proposal allows for a 61 euro reduction per month,” he explained, adding that it is about “returning money to families,” not taking it from the state.
The IL deputy also stated that the current disparity between the cost of living and wages in Portugal is “absolutely unsustainable” and might lead to the “collapse of the country.” He announced measures to increase housing supply, such as a one-year IRS exemption on capital gains from property sales in 2026.
The liberal leader stressed that taxing capital gains “makes many postpone their decision to sell properties and put them on the housing market.”
The IL project excludes from this exemption income obtained from the sale of a property already transacted after January 1, 2025, except in inheritance or “exceptional circumstances.”
The party also proposes reducing tax on rental income to 15% for all properties and exempting it for five years on properties that haven’t been on the rental market in the last five years. Additionally, the IL advocates lowering the construction VAT rate to 6%.
The IL will also propose increasing the sickness benefit for families with dependents suffering from oncological illnesses or severe disabilities to assist “those genuinely in need and in distress.”
In healthcare, the liberal bench wants patients waiting for surgery or specialty consultations, where public hospitals are known not to meet minimum response times, to be referred to another hospital, whether public, private, or in the social sector.
To promote birth rates, the liberals propose reinstating family quotient for dependents and shifting social responsibility costs, such as parental rights and work-life balance exercises, from employers to the state.
Mário Amorim Lopes assured during this press conference that his party’s proposals have a “much lower cost than the increase in public expenditure observed in recent years” under the PSD/CDS government.
“With these two years of AD governance, the increase in public expenditure will exceed, surprisingly, the rise that occurred during the eight years of Socialist Party governance,” he emphasized.
