Portugal’s Unique Fire Tax Reporting System

Edit Buliczka
July 6, 2021

Treatment of fire charges is tricky in almost all jurisdictions. Fire coverage can vary from as high as 100% to 20%.

No-one would dispute that the most complex fire charge treatment is in Spain. In Portugal, whilst the rules are less complex, they have a unique reporting system for how the policies covering fire must be reported.

How Portuguese Fire Brigade Tax reporting is unique

The Portuguese Fire Brigade Tax (FBT), otherwise known as National Authority for Civil Protection Fire Brigade Charge or ANPC (Autoridade Nacional de Proteção Civil), is due on certain policies covering fire risks. Such policies can be mapped as Class 3-13.

The tax rate is 13%, but usually the fire coverage is set at 30%, so the applied rate is only 3.9%. As per market practice, if the fire proportion is not separately identified in the policy, then 30% fire proportion is assumed. ANPC is settled to the ASF (Autoridade de Supervisão de Seguros e Fundos de Pensões), the body that administrates parafiscal taxes in Portugal, on a monthly basis together with the other parafiscal taxes such as INEM (medical emergencies). There is currently no speciality in the regulation.

The unique feature of the Portuguese fire tax is the five yearly reporting requirement. This five yearly report was last due in 2016 and will be due again in 2021. The report requires insurers to prepare a summary which lists total ANPC or Fire taxes paid in respect of the year when it’s due. So although the report itself is due every five years, the reportable policies are limited only to the policies subject to ANPC in that reporting year.

Another unique feature of this reporting is that although all insurers are subject to settle ANPC liabilities monthly, not all insurers are necessarily obliged to submit this report. ASF informs the insurance companies who are required to submit this report.

How to report Portugal’s Fire Brigade Tax

Reporting is biannual. In 2016 the first semester data (01-01-2016 to 30-06-2016) was due to be reported by 31 August 2016 and the second semester data (01-07-2016 to 31-12-2016) was due by 28 February 2017.

In 2016, when this report was last due, ASF issued an official circular about the reporting requirements. A template has been published to provide help for insurance companies to fulfil their obligations.

In 2016 the report requested a total of the ANPC charges per county and per district. That included more than 300 districts. As yet, we’ve not seen a circular about the requirements for 2021, so we’re in contact with ASF to find out if the report is still due and if yes, the requirements and when the notifications will be sent to the insurance companies.

We hope the complexity of this reporting hasn’t been further increased by the ASF. This unique reporting is time consuming for insurance companies and looking at the global trends in reporting requirements we expect the FBT report will still be due this year.

Take Action

Get in touch about the benefits a managed service provider can offer to ease your IPT compliance burden.

Sign up for Email Updates

Stay up to date with the latest tax and compliance updates that may impact your business.

Author

Edit Buliczka

Edit is a senior regulatory counsel. She joined Sovos in January 2016 and has extensive IPT knowledge and experience. Her role ensures the IPT teams and systems at Sovos are always updated with legislative changes. She is a Hungarian registered tax expert and chartered accountant and has worked for companies in Hungary including Deloitte and KPMG and as an indirect tax manager she worked for AIG in Budapest. She graduated with an economist degree from Budapest Business School, faculty of finance and accountancy and also she has a postgraduate diploma from ELTE Legal University in Budapest.
Share this post

Greece B2B E-invoicing
E-Invoicing Compliance EMEA
January 14, 2025
Greece: Mandatory B2B E-invoicing Possible From July 2025 After EU Derogation

Greece has been in the process of implementing mandatory B2G e-invoicing over the past few years, with a B2B e-invoicing mandate expected to follow. Following reports that Greece had requested a derogation to introduce mandatory B2B e-invoicing in 2024, the European Commission has published a proposal for a Council Implementing Decision to grant this authorisation. […]

SAP Clean Core implementation
EMEA Tax Compliance
January 6, 2025
SAP: Your Business’ Path to Clean Core

In the first blog in our series, we introduced SAP Clean Core concept and how much is being made about its impact on business, specifically the ability to customize an ERP to meet operational needs. In part two, we addressed how businesses can use the SAP Clean Core principles to create a system that better […]

taxation of motor insurance policies france
EMEA VAT & Fiscal Reporting
December 18, 2024
Taxation of Motor Insurance Policies: France

France is one of the most challenging countries in Europe when it comes to the premium tax treatment of motor insurance policies. This is mainly due to the variety of taxes and charges that can apply and the differing treatment of different vehicle types. This blog provides all the information you need to know about […]

E-Invoicing Compliance EMEA VAT & Fiscal Reporting
November 1, 2024
VAT in the Digital Age Approved in ECOFIN

The long-awaited VAT in the Digital Age (ViDA) proposal has been approved by Member States’ Economic and Finance Ministers. On 5 November 2024, during the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) meeting, Member States unanimously agreed on adopting the ViDA package. This decision marks a major milestone in modernizing the VAT Directive, setting the stage […]

what is peppol
E-Invoicing Compliance EMEA North America
October 29, 2024
What it is PEPPOL?

Peppol E-invoicing explained: What it is and how it works The global adoption of electronic invoicing is accelerating. Governments worldwide are pushing to adopt e-invoicing to digitally transform their national systems and, often, to close the VAT gap. While many countries have introduced their own e-invoicing mandate to digitise fiscal controls, the requirements and systems […]