Portugal's property owners stiffed by government over inflated rates bills

Consumer champion DECO today accused the government of overcharging tens of thousands of property owners with inflated rates bills.

DECO estimates €244 million is being needlessly squeezed out of hard-pressed home owners as rateable values fail to reflect actual property values and are not updated automatically by Finanças which easily could use data including the age of the property when calculating Imposto Municipal sobre Imóveis, or rates.

DECO has had a free simulator for property owners running online for months so its analysts can see how much the public is being overcharged.

Joaquim Rodrigues da Silva, DECO's lawyer, explains that there have been thousands of online simulations and the average savings would be 18.75% if the government applied current property values and added the age of the property to its equation when working out rates.

More worrying, but par for the course, is the refusal by the Minister of Finance, Maria Luís Albuquerque to meet up and discuss DECO’s concerns which are a summary and reflection of a wider malaise among Portugal’s property owners.

Albuquerque's position is meant to involve serving the public and by not deigning to discuss the empirical data collected by a respected consumer organisation she is serving only to shorten her own political career.

DECO asked for a meeting last October and complains that Albuquerque "continues to ignore what has long been evident: Imposto Municipal sobre Imóveis is being charged at more than it should be" and that consumers "are overpaying for the age and value of construction of properties as this is not reviewed automatically."

"According to DECO’s calculations, Finanças are incorrectly collecting €244 million", thus each taxpayer should be saving 18.75% on his or her rates bill.

With the cap coming off rates bills next year, and a free-for-all rates hike predicted as councils rebuild their balance sheets, the baisis for calculating property rates should at least be a fair one, rather than using the current fiddled figures.

 In July this year, the Ministry of Finance assured the public that updates to the Valor Patrimonial within the IMI Code are to be made law and suggested to owners that they carry on making simulations on the DECO site - this fails to address the missing €244 million.

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