“Let it never be mistaken that lowering the Corporate Income Tax (IRC) is favoring businessmen. We reduced IRC to give companies the conditions to grow and prosper,” stated Castro Almeida during a joint hearing with the Agriculture and Fisheries, and the Budget, Finance, and Public Administration committees.
The leader of the Ministry of Economy and Territorial Cohesion further argued that the State should collect from companies only what is necessary to maintain the social state and not a euro more.
Castro Almeida also expressed satisfaction in being part of a government that established a “declining trajectory” of taxes on corporate profits, providing predictability to entrepreneurs.
The reduction of the general IRC rate from 20% to 19% in 2026 was approved on October 17 in parliament during the final overall vote, with support from the PSD, CDS-PP, Chega, IL, PAN, and JPP.
The PS, Livre, PCP, and BE voted against the measure.
The new rate outlined in the decree will apply to the income companies earn in 2026.
In addition to the reduction of the current rate from 20% to 19% next year, the decree enshrines further decreases in the following two years. The rate will fall to 18% in 2027 and to 17% from 2028 onwards.
