In the opening speech of the National Council, scheduled to approve the list of candidates for the European elections, Luís Montenegro took stock of the first two weeks of government.

"We have often been urged to deviate from our agenda, to go to the opposition's agenda, to the media's agenda. I know that sometimes some people even find it strange to be silent or to focus on the message of our program, but that is how we will continue", he assured, promising "hyper-maximum concentration" in solving people's problems.

The social-democratic leader considered symptomatic what happened about the IRS reduction: "Everything was a pretext for television programs, newspaper articles, almost endless discussion about the size of the reduction, the reasons and the comparison".

"One thing is unequivocal: when we reach December 31, 2024, the Portuguese will pay 1,539 million euros less in IRS than they paid in 2023 and up to the eighth bracket", he said, stressing that this was already the proposal that the PSD defended in the opposition "even when the current Secretary-General of the PS thought it should not be done".

Montenegro once again argued that the comparison that should be made is with the taxes that the Portuguese paid in 2023 -- and not with the amount entered by the PS in the Budget for 2024, as it is only an estimate.

"Of course it is true, a reduction in IRS rates was entered in the State Budget due to pressure from the PSD, but it was very partial because it was limited to net salaries of 1,300 euros, an absolutely wrong signal that was given to the Portuguese and that we are now correcting", he said.

Montenegro said that he is even grateful that "so much time has been wasted discussing the logic of the IRS reduction" made by the PSD/CDS-PP executive, saying that when the Portuguese realize "the extent of the tax reduction" they will realize "that it was worth changing the Government", promising to continue with the implementation of the promise to reduce the IRS for young people, the IRC and, when possible, further reductions in IRS rates.

On Friday, the PSD/CDS-PP Government approved a bill to reduce the IRS marginal rates of all brackets, except the 9th, which applies to annual taxable income above 81,199 euros.

According to Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, this measure is worth 348 million euros, which is added to 1,191 million euros of IRS reduction already in force since January, made by the previous PS Government in the State Budget for 2024.

The Government's proposal is to reduce the marginal rate of the 1st bracket by 0.25 percentage points, the marginal rates of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th brackets by 0.5 percentage points and the 5th bracket by 0.75 percentage points.

In the 6th bracket, the proposed reduction is 3 percentage points and in the 8th bracket 1.25 percentage points.

As IRS is progressive, taxpayers with income in the higher brackets benefit from the reductions in marginal rates made in each of the lower brackets.

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