And increasing VAT to 23% would not help; Association of hotel and restoration surprised with this recommendation.
The Technical Unit for the Evaluation of Tax and Customs Policies, created by the government for about a year and a half, recommends a climb the rate of IVA na restoration of the current 13% to 23%.
The report of this unit states that there would be an increase in tax revenue with VAT to 23; And it considers that the current VAT of 13% mainly benefits families with high income.
The Association of Hotel, Restoration and Similar of Portugal (AHRESP) It is against this proposal. The Secretary General was even “Surprised” With the news, because the panorama of restoration in Portugal is famous – although tourism is growing.
“We had already warned of another difficult cycle that the restoration sector is going through, because although the tourist data confirm that we are growing, These data are mainly data regarding the accommodation. We are talking about what: overnight, guests and revenues from these overnight and guest entrances, ”Ana Jacinto explained.
Also on Friday the Secretary of State for Tourism, Commerce and Services, Pedro Machado, revealed that the Tourism in Portugal grew 6% in revenues in the first half of 2025; 6% growth in revenue and between 2 and 3% in tourist flow.
But Ana Jacinto leaves an explanation: “Regarding the Restoration, the data is virtually nonexistent ”.
AHRESP Secretary-General warns that the restoration sector “is not well”. Who suffers more are the business “outside the tourist centers” due to the obvious “regional asymmetries”.
“This restoration is not well due to the strong impact of inflation in the prices of raw materials-we must not forget that we leave a pandemia, But we have a indebtedness that is being paid – to the effort these companies have made to increase wages. All of this has led the sector not as well as we would like it, ”continues Ana Jacinto.
Regarding the announced increase in tax revenue of € billion, the official warns that the Accounts are not that simple“If we talk about increased VAT, it’s good to see that the recipe increases. If we talk about IVA descent, it’s good to see that the recipe also goes down. But this analysis can’t be done in a simplistic way.”
