Portugal entered 481 million euro less than it owed in the 2017 VAT collection. For the first time in years, the value appears below the barrier of 500 million euros.

The loss, of 2.8%, is the lowest value of the last years, according to the report provided by the National Statistic Institute of Portugal (INE) since 2010.

The VAT Gap in Portugal (which is the difference between expected VAT revenues and VAT actually collected) registered the highest value in 2012 – around 2.2 billion euros – continuing a downward trend since then. In 2013 the VAT Gap registered was 1,709.7 million euros, it dropped to 1,258.1 million euros in 2014, to 1,055.8 million euros in 2015, and to 972.2 million euros in 2016.

In 2017, the effective VAT revenue amounted to 16,809, but
the theoretical VAT revenue should have been 17,291 million euros. However, INE recommends that VAT Gap results should be read with caution, since the values ​​may not only reflect tax evasion or fraud, but also other factors such as variations in payment, refund and recovery timings of VAT debts, or theoretical VAT calculation errors.