If the money from income tax and VAT receipts continues to grow at the rate registered to July this year, the government estimates that taxpayers can expect a decrease in 2016 of the income tax surcharge from the current 3.5% to 2.6%.
The rise in taxes received by the treasury can be viewed against a background of evasion and delayed payments with over 30% of taxed due, remaining unpaid.
Had the country’s taxpayers stumped up the money they owe, the income tax surcharges put in place at the beginning of the austerity period would not have been necessary.
The treasury’s income figures published today show that the Portuguese taxpayer has an accumulated debt of €13.5 billion, the highest per head in the OECD and EU countries.
Head tax collector, Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs Paulo Núncio, has overseen a saddening rise in coercive collection techniques used as a weapon to enforce tax debts.
A rise of these collections of 25% in one year indicates a hardening of the state's attitude to a tax system that many still regard as voluntary.
The cancellation of refunds due to taxpayers is viewed by taxpayers as the state punishing the public, leaving those owed money with the option of going to a tax office hearing to get their money back and, when this fails, court action.
The failure, despite many high profile arrests, of implementing and enforcing hefty fines on the rich for financial crimes is seen by the public as business as usual with the honest and hard working paying higher and higher rates of tax while the 'elite' tie up the judicial system with their legal muscle.
The Portuguese therefore owe the most per head in Europe which for many is one small act of rebellion in a system that acts first and asks questions later, if at all.
Catarina Martins from the Left Bloc pounced on the "government propaganda" saying the possible reduction in the income tax surcharge “insults the intelligence of the Portuguese.”
Martins commented, "the most insulting thing is to say they will return what has been stolen and then not even return it in full."
"The surcharge is not their money. They levied more taxes to fill the coffers and now they tell us that they will return just part of it.”
The Left Bloc leader was mingling with locals in Quarteira and concluded that they should “stand up against this assault” and vote for her, not ‘them’ on October 4th.
