e-Fatura: how to validate your invoices

How to validate your invoices in e-Fatura, step by step

Validating (or confirming) your invoices means checking that all invoices with your NIF are there, that each one is in the right sector, and completing the ones that are pending. For 2026 invoices, you have until 1 March 2027 (the legal deadline is the end of February; see the deadlines). It takes less time if you do it every now and then during the year.

1. Open e-Fatura

   On the Portal das Finanças, type “e-Fatura” in the search box, or go straight to the e-Fatura consumer area. To log in, use the Chave Móvel Digital, your Cartão de Cidadão (citizen card) or your Portal das Finanças password. You can also use the e-Fatura mobile app (Android, iOS and Huawei).

2. See your invoices

   Under Faturação > Adquirente > Verificar Faturas (Invoicing > Buyer > Check invoices) you will find all invoices issued with your NIF and the ones you registered yourself. In the app, they are under As minhas faturas (My invoices) (AT frequently asked questions).

3. Deal with pending invoices

   Open Faturação > Adquirente > Resolver Pendências (Resolve pending items; in the AT leaflets it appears as Complementar Informação Faturas). Choose the sector for each invoice and click Guardar (Save). In the app you can classify all invoices from the same seller at once.

4. If you work on recibos verdes, say whether the expense is for your activity

   For each pending invoice, say whether the purchase was made for your activity and whether it is fully or partly for the activity, and choose the sector (on screen it is called “Atividade de Realização da Aquisição”). See the details under If you work on recibos verdes.

5. Correct the sector if it is wrong

   In Verificar Faturas, open the invoice, click Alterar (Change), change the sector and click Guardar. You can only choose a sector the seller is registered in with the AT (with the matching CAE).

6. Attach the medical prescription

   If you have health expenses with VAT at the standard rate, use the Associar Receita (Link prescription) option. Say that you have a prescription and enter the amount.

7. Register missing invoices

   See how further down, under When the seller has not reported the invoice.

8. Repeat for each person in the household

   Each person, including children or other dependants, has their own invoices under their own NIF.

9. Come back on 16 March

   Check the final amounts under Deduções à Coleta (tax deductions).

Pending invoices: why they appear and how to resolve them

According to the AT, an invoice is marked as having “informação pendente” (pending information) when:

• the seller has several activities in different sectors (for example, a supermarket that also sells books or medicines). The system does not know which sector to put the expense in, so you choose;
• you are self-employed (you issue recibos verdes, for example). In that case, all your invoices stay pending until you say whether they are business or personal;
• it is a health expense with VAT at the standard rate. It only counts as health if you have a medical prescription, and you have to say so.

How to resolve them:

Invoices that are not pending have already been put in a sector automatically. Even so, check that the sector is right: if it is not, correct it (step 5).

If you work on recibos verdes (self-employed)

1. All your invoices stay pending. For each one, say whether the expense is personal or for your activity, fully or partly.
2. How do you know if it is a business expense? An expense related to your work counts as a business expense. The law gives examples: everyday materials, electricity, water, transport and communications, rent, insurance, professional association fees, travel and accommodation (CIRS, article 31(13)(e)). If you use the same thing for work and in your personal life (for example, your mobile phone), tag it as partly for the activity: in that case, in the simplified regime, the expense only counts at 25% (article 31(14)).
3. Where: in e-Fatura (Faturação > Adquirente > Resolver Pendências), in the e-Fatura app or in the ATGo app, which the AT provides for people with an activity who do not keep formal accounts. In the apps you can classify several invoices at once (AT frequently asked questions, nos. 4923 and 4924).
4. Check at the end: the invoices you tagged as business expenses appear in the Despesas da atividade (business expenses) tab in e-Fatura (or in ATGo).
5. The deadline is the same: by the end of February of the following year (for 2026 invoices, 1 March 2027). It is in the law: CIRS, article 31(15).
6. Business invoices do not count as personal expenses. If you are registered for VAT, you can only deduct on your IRS, as a personal expense, what you bought outside your activity (CIRS, article 78-B(4)).
7. Why it matters: in the simplified regime, business expenses can help justify the part of your income the law requires you to back up. We explain this, with numbers, in the guide Expenses in the simplified regime.
8. Also on the return: the law lets you declare the amount of these expenses on the IRS return itself. In that case, the amounts you declare replace the AT’s, and you must be able to prove them (CIRS, article 31(16)).
9. If you are in the normal VAT regime, there is an extra, separate step to state the percentage to deduct. That is outside the scope of this guide: speak to an accountant. If you are exempt, see the guide to the VAT exemption (article 53).

Deadlines for 2026 invoices

Why 1 March and not 28 February? When a deadline falls on a day when public services are closed, it moves to the next working day (Tax Procedure and Process Code (CPPT), article 20(1)). In 2026, with 28 February on a Saturday, the AT itself gave 2 March. In 2027, 28 February is a Sunday, so the next working day is 1 March.

What changed: until 2025, the law said “by 25 February” (previous wording of article 78-B(5)). Decreto-Lei n.º 49/2025, in force since 1 July 2025, moved the deadline to the end of February (CIRS, article 78-B(5)). This applied for the first time in 2026, to 2025 invoices (AT leaflet “Principais prazos em 2026”).

See all the year’s deadlines in the tax calendar.

Why this matters

Many expenses reduce your IRS (the so-called deduções à coleta, tax deductions). The Finanças calculate that reduction from the invoices in e-Fatura, by sector: health, education, housing, general household expenses, among others. If an invoice is in the wrong sector, pending or missing, you may lose part of the deduction.

e-Fatura sectors and how much they deduct

Amounts in force for 2026 expenses, according to the IRS Code, checked on 10 November 2026.

There is also a limit on the total of several of these deductions, which depends on income (CIRS, article 78(7)). The calculator and the Finanças do that calculation. What decides which sector an invoice goes into is the seller’s CAE, not what you bought.

When the seller has not reported the invoice

• The seller has until the 5th of the following month to report the invoice to the AT. If the invoice is recent, wait a few days.
• If it is still missing, register it yourself. In e-Fatura, register the invoice with the details from the paper copy. In the e-Fatura app, scan the QR code (the square of dots printed on the invoice). Since 2023 this works even if the invoice does not have your NIF, because invoices now have a unique code.
• Invoices from abroad: health, education and training expenses incurred outside Portugal, and rent paid in another country of the European Union or the European Economic Area (with tax information exchange), are registered under Registar Faturas Emitidas no Estrangeiro (Register invoices issued abroad).
• Keep the invoice. If you register the expense yourself, keep the paper copy for 4 years, counted from the end of the year of purchase (AT frequently asked questions, no. 4930).
• Always ask for an invoice with your NIF. General household expenses only count if you ask for your NIF on the invoice or report it through the QR code or the unique code (CIRS, article 78-B(3)).

General household expenses or sector-specific deductible expenses?

• General household expenses (despesas gerais familiares) are almost everything you buy with your NIF: supermarket, clothes, electricity, telecoms. They deduct 35%, up to €250 per person filing the IRS return. Most households reach this limit quickly.
• Health, education, housing and care home expenses have their own percentages and limits, usually more favourable. So a medical appointment, an invoice for glasses or school books that ends up in “Outros” (Other) by mistake may be worth less.
• In practice: when a pending invoice could go into health or education (and the seller is registered in that sector), choose that sector rather than “Outros”.
• The sectors in the “exigência de fatura” scheme (restaurants, hairdresser, garage, etc.) give a deduction calculated on the VAT, not on the total amount.

How to complain

• When: from 16 to 31 March 2027, after you have seen the amounts under Deduções à Coleta.
• What: missing items or errors in general household expenses and in expenses from the invoice requirement scheme (restaurants, hairdresser, garage, etc.).
• Where: on the Portal das Finanças, under Reclamações de Despesas para Deduções à Coleta (complaints about expenses for tax deductions).
• Who: each person complains about their own expenses, including dependants, logging in with their own NIF and password.
• Health, education, rent and care homes work differently. If the amounts are wrong, you can declare the correct amounts on the IRS return itself, in table 6C1 of Annex H (anexo H), instead of the amounts the AT has. You must be able to prove the difference (CIRS, article 78-G).

Common mistakes

• Leaving pending invoices until the last day and finding there are dozens of them. Deal with them every now and then during the year.
• Validating only your own invoices and forgetting those of your children or other dependants.
• Putting health expenses in “Outros”: they deduct less and use up the €250 limit.
• Forgetting the medical prescription for health purchases with VAT at the standard rate.
• Not asking for an invoice with your NIF and not registering it later.
• If you work on recibos verdes, tagging a business expense as personal, or the other way round.
• Mixing up the dates: end of February to validate, 16 to 31 March to check and complain, 1 April to 30 June to file your IRS.

Add the deadlines to your phone calendar

Frequently asked questions

Until when can I validate my 2026 invoices?

Until the end of February 2027. As 28 February 2027 is a Sunday, the deadline moves to Monday, 1 March 2027 (CIRS, article 78-B(5)).

How do I validate pending invoices in e-Fatura?

On the Portal das Finanças, open e-Fatura and go to Faturação > Adquirente > Resolver Pendências (or use the e-Fatura app). Choose the sector for each invoice and click Guardar (Save). If you work on recibos verdes, also say whether the expense is for your activity, fully or partly.

What is a pending invoice?

It is an invoice that e-Fatura could not put in a sector on its own, because the seller has several activities, because you are self-employed or because it is a health expense with VAT at the standard rate. You have to choose the sector under “Complementar Informação Faturas”.

If I do not validate, do I lose my deductions?

The Finanças calculate deductions from the invoices in e-Fatura and the sector they are in. Missing invoices or invoices in the wrong sector may give you a smaller deduction. So check everything by the end of February.

The invoice does not show up in e-Fatura. What do I do?

The seller has until the 5th of the following month to report it. After that, register it yourself in e-Fatura or scan the QR code in the e-Fatura app. Keep the paper copy.

When can I see how much I will deduct?

From 16 March 2027, under Deduções à Coleta on the Portal das Finanças (the AT publishes the amounts by 15 March).

Until when can I complain?

From 16 to 31 March 2027, for general household expenses and expenses from the invoice requirement scheme. For health, education, rent and care homes, you can declare the correct amounts in Annex H of the IRS return.

I work on recibos verdes. What changes?

All your invoices stay pending and you have to say which are business expenses and which are personal, by the same deadline (CIRS, article 31(15)). Business invoices do not count as personal expenses.

How do I know whether an expense is for my activity?

An expense related to your work is a business expense. The law gives as examples everyday materials, electricity, water, transport and communications, rent, insurance, professional association fees, travel and accommodation (CIRS, article 31(13)). If you use the same thing for work and in your personal life, tag it as partly for the activity.

Do I have to validate my children’s invoices?

Yes. Each person in the household has their invoices under their own NIF, and complaints are also made by each person, including dependants.

Official sources

Every figure on this page comes from these sources (official documents, in Portuguese). Updated on 11 November 2026

• Código de Procedimento e de Processo Tributário, art.º 20.º (prazos que acabam em dia de serviços fechados) (opens in a new window)
• Código do IRS, art.º 31.º (opens in a new window)
• Código do IRS, art.º 60.º (opens in a new window)
• Código do IRS, art.º 78.º (opens in a new window)
• Código do IRS, art.º 78.º-B (opens in a new window)
• Código do IRS, art.º 78.º-C (opens in a new window)
• Código do IRS, art.º 78.º-D (opens in a new window)
• Código do IRS, art.º 78.º-E (opens in a new window)
• Código do IRS, art.º 78.º-F (opens in a new window)
• Código do IRS, art.º 78.º-G (opens in a new window)
• Código do IRS, art.º 78.º-H (opens in a new window)
• Código do IRS, art.º 84.º (opens in a new window)
• AT — página e-Fatura (opens in a new window)
• AT — página "Principais prazos" (opens in a new window)
• AT — Folheto "Registo, classificação e validação de faturas" (janeiro 2026) (opens in a new window)
• AT — Perguntas frequentes "e-Fatura > Adquirentes > Faturas" (opens in a new window)
• AT — Folheto "IRS – Principais prazos em 2026" (opens in a new window)
• Código do IRS, art.º 78.º-B — redação em vigor até junho de 2025 (prazo de 25 de fevereiro) (opens in a new window)
• AT — Folheto "IRS – Deduções, benefícios fiscais e taxas, rendimentos de 2025" (fevereiro 2026), nota 11 sobre o anexo H (opens in a new window)