Keeping a car on a road that is mostly tunnel

IUC, the annual tax, and the date that changes in 2027

The Imposto Único de Circulação is national. It was created by Lei n.º 22-A/2007, and the code sorts light passenger cars into two categories by a single date: Category A covers cars first registered between 1981 and 30 June 2007, Category B covers cars first registered from 1 July 2007 onwards. The categories are taxed on different things.

Category A is charged on cylinder capacity, voltage, the age of the registration and the fuel. Category B is charged on cylinder capacity and carbon dioxide emissions, with the two components added together, and the result is then multiplied by a coefficient set by the year of first registration — 1.15*, source: Diário da República, 2024 onwards, still in force 2026, read August 26, 2026 for anything registered in 2010 or later.

For a small Category B car the two components start at €31.77*, source: Diário da República, 2024 onwards, read August 26, 2026 on cylinder capacity and €65.15*, source: Diário da República, 2024 onwards, read August 26, 2026 on emissions. Diesel cars pay an additional charge on top, starting at €5.02*, source: Diário da República, read August 26, 2026 for the smallest Category B band. Nothing is collected at all where the assessment comes to less than €10*, source: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira / Portal das Finanças, read August 26, 2026.

The payment date is about to move

Through 2026 the tax falls due in the anniversary month of the car's first registration — the code ties the tax period to the registration date rather than to the calendar. Decreto-Lei n.º 161/2026 ends that. From 1 January 2027 the tax period becomes the calendar year, assessment becomes centralised per taxpayer across all their vehicles, and payment moves to April, in instalments scaled to the amount, on a model the decree explicitly compares to the municipal property tax.

2027 itself has its own transitional dates rather than the permanent ones. Any guidance still saying the tax is paid in the registration month will be describing the old regime from January.

What is regional about a national tax

Two things, and neither of them changes the amount.

The first is the emissions figure. Article 7.º of the IUC code provides that in the Autonomous Regions of the Azores and Madeira the carbon dioxide values used to work out the tax are the same ones used to calculate the vehicle tax on import. That is a regional rule sitting inside a national code, which is why this page quotes article 7.º itself rather than a summary of the IUC.

The second is where the money lands. Under article 3.º of Lei n.º 22-A/2007, the emissions component and 30%*, source: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira / Portal das Finanças, read August 26, 2026 of the cylinder-capacity component accrue to the Autonomous Regions for vehicles circulating in their territory, where on the mainland the same share goes to the State. The diesel surcharge is the exception: it reverts entirely to the State budget wherever the car is.

So the rate a Madeira resident pays is the mainland rate, calculated the mainland way, with a regional adjustment to one input and a different destination for part of the proceeds. A page describing a Madeira IUC rate table has invented one.

IPO, the roadworthiness inspection

The interval is set nationally by Decreto-Lei n.º 144/2012 and its annex, in wording that is worth having exactly. For a light passenger vehicle the inspection falls due 4 years after first registration*, source: Diário da República, read August 26, 2026 after the date of first registration, then every two years until the car reaches eight years old, and annually after that.

The car has to be presented by the day and month matching its original registration, and the test may be taken in the 3 months*, source: Diário da República, read August 26, 2026 before that date. IMT-IP publishes the mainland tariff: €30.46*, source: IMT-IP (Instituto da Mobilidade e dos Transportes), read August 31, 2026 for a light vehicle and €7.64*, source: IMT-IP, read August 26, 2026 for a re-test, both stated before VAT.

The periodicity and the vehicle classes are national, but the fee is not

Decreto-Lei n.º 144/2012 sets the interval and the vehicle classes for the whole country, including Madeira. The fee is different: Madeira fixes its own tariff by regional portaria — currently €31.06*, source: Governo Regional da Madeira, 2026, Inspeção Periódica, veículos ligeiros, read August 31, 2026 before VAT — while the mainland fee of €30.46*, source: IMT-IP (Instituto da Mobilidade e dos Transportes), read August 31, 2026 before VAT is set separately, by IMT's own deliberation. The two VAT rates differ too, so the final prices come to €37.89*, source: Governo Regional da Madeira, 2026, Inspeção Periódica, veículos ligeiros — figure includes Madeira's 22% standard VAT rate, read August 31, 2026 in Madeira and €37.47*, source: IMT-IP (Instituto da Mobilidade e dos Transportes), read August 31, 2026 on the mainland. See the cost-of-living guide for the Madeira figure quoted on its own. Administration is also regional: Decreto-Lei n.º 132/2026, which revises the regime for operating inspection centres and takes effect around October 2026, provides that the acts and procedures needed to carry it out in the Azores and Madeira fall to the regional administrations.

The practical consequence of the island rather than the law is wear. An inspection here is testing a car that spends its life on gradients, and brakes, clutches and tyres are the components the terrain reaches first.

Parking in the capital

Funchal publishes its parking charges in the municipal fees table, and the 2026 edition sets four tariff zones charged by the hour, before VAT: Zona Amarela at €1.55*, source: Câmara Municipal do Funchal, 2026, read August 26, 2026, Zona Verde at €1.17*, source: Câmara Municipal do Funchal, 2026, read August 26, 2026, Zona Vermelha at €0.64*, source: Câmara Municipal do Funchal, 2026, read August 26, 2026 and Zona Castanha at €0.46*, source: Câmara Municipal do Funchal, 2026, read August 26, 2026. The rates were last revised through Aviso n.º 16324/2025/2, published in the Diário da República in July 2025 and approved by the câmara and the municipal assembly the previous month.

Residents are a separate product. The Cartão de Morador is priced per quarter rather than per year: €35.87*, source: Câmara Municipal do Funchal, 2026, read August 26, 2026 for one card, €182.32*, source: Câmara Municipal do Funchal, 2026, read August 26, 2026 for two.

Two colour systems that are not the same system

The zone names above are tariff bands. Separately, the regional tourism service describes the kerb markings: white lines are free with some reserved for residents, blue lines are paid, and yellow lines mean no parking. It gives the paid hours as Monday to Friday from 8am to 8pm and Saturday from 8am to 2pm, with Sundays and public holidays free, payable at meters or through the iPark Driver app.

Confusing the two is easy, because both use colours and one of the colours appears in both. Which streets fall into which tariff zone is not published in the fees table, and the current consolidated zone regulation was not retrieved for this page, so no street-by-street map is given here.

The road network, and the figure nobody publishes

The spine is the VR1, the Ribeira Brava–Machico expressway, run as a road concession by Vialitoral and carrying the ER101 designation. The Direção Regional de Estradas publishes its length section by section, totalling 38.34 km*, source: Direção Regional de Estradas, Governo Regional da Madeira, read August 26, 2026, and its junction list runs from Ribeira Brava through Câmara de Lobos, Funchal and Santa Cruz to Machico. Four expressways branch from the same network: the VE1 from Machico to Ribeira de São Jorge, the VE2 from São Vicente to Porto Moniz, the VE3 from Ribeira Brava to Raposeira, and the VE4 from Ribeira Brava to São Vicente.

Tunnels

The regional government states that the regional road network contains more than 100 km*, source: Governo Regional da Madeira, 2026, read August 26, 2026. That is a length, not a count, and it is the only official tunnel figure that could be found. The widely repeated claim that Madeira has around a hundred and fifty tunnels has no official source behind it and is not repeated here.

A count does exist for the VR1 alone, because the concession table names each tunnel with its length in each direction. That table lists 25 tunnels*, source: Direção Regional de Estradas, Governo Regional da Madeira, read August 26, 2026, the longest of them at Ribeira Brava and at Cabo Girão. That is a count of one road, not of the island.

Speed on these roads carries its own regional rule: Decreto Legislativo Regional n.º 14/2018/M permits 10 km/h*, source: Jornal Oficial da Região Autónoma da Madeira, read August 26, 2026 above the otherwise applicable limit on Madeira's expressways, but only on properly signed sections and only when the surface is dry.

Gradients are not measured in the public record

Every account of driving here mentions the hills, and a hill start on a slope steep enough to be memorable is an ordinary event rather than an anecdote. No official body publishes a gradient figure for any of it. The Direção Regional de Estradas publishes no gradient limits, no steepest-road record and no gradient signage standard that could be found.

So no percentage appears on this page. What can be said instead is mechanical and true: a car kept here does more of its work in low gear, on inclines, from standstill, than a car kept almost anywhere in Europe, and clutches are consumable in a way owners moving from flat countries do not expect. That is the honest version of a figure this site cannot source, and it is covered further in how movement around the island actually works.

On tolls, the Direção Regional de Estradas publishes no toll tariff for the VR1 or the expressways, and IMT-IP's national toll-classification pages make no mention of the Regions. The regional tourism service states directly that all expressways and main roads in Madeira are free for residents and visitors alike.

Fuel, which really is regional

This is the one part of motoring that Madeira genuinely runs itself. Unleaded IO95, road diesel and coloured-and-marked diesel are subject to a maximum retail price regime under Portaria n.º 25/2022. The maxima are recalculated every seven days by joint order of the regional economy and finance secretariats, and take effect at midnight on Monday whenever the figure moves. Distributors may sell below the maximum; they may not sell above it.

The formula changed in April 2026, when a second amendment to the Portaria removed the adjustment factor previously built into it. Any explanation of how the price is set written before then is describing a calculation that no longer applies.

This week’s maxima

For the week of 24 to 30 August 2026 the published maxima are €1.860 per litre*, source: Direção Regional de Comércio, Indústria e Qualidade, week of 24 to 30 August 2026, read August 29, 2026 for IO95 and €1.974 per litre*, source: Direção Regional de Comércio, Indústria e Qualidade, week of 24 to 30 August 2026, read August 29, 2026 for road diesel. The directorate publishes the following week alongside the current one, so the next figure is visible before it takes effect.

An earlier version of this page said the current maxima could not be found at source. They can: the directorate publishes them weekly, and its page carries a stale preços em vigor date line above a table that is current — which is easy to mistake for an out-of-date page.

The mainland comparison is from an earlier announcement rather than from the weekly page: petrol €1.899 per litre*, source: Governo Regional da Madeira, Secretaria Regional de Economia, week of 27 April 2026, read August 26, 2026 and diesel €1.980 per litre*, source: Governo Regional da Madeira, Secretaria Regional de Economia, week of 27 April 2026, read August 26, 2026 on the continent, which made Madeira the cheaper of the two on both fuels in that week rather than in this one.

Licences

A licence issued by another EU or EEA state does not generally have to be exchanged in order to drive, the exception being one that prints no validity date at all. There is a duty attached to residence rather than to driving: under the Regulamento da Habilitação Legal para Conduzir, holders of an EU or EEA licence who establish residence in Portugal must notify the local IMT-IP office within 60 days*, source: Diário da República, Every EU and EEA licence holder taking up residence in Portugal; unamended by Decreto-Lei n.º 40/2016, n.º 102-B/2020 or n.º 114/2026, read August 31, 2026.

The Código da Estrada, artigo 128.º n.º 4, makes exchange compulsory for a resident holding an EU or EEA licence in two situations: where the licence has been seized in Portugal to serve a driving ban, and where any alteration to it is needed. Voluntary exchange is available in the ordinary case.

IMT-IP's own plain-language pages on this were read directly, and they agree with the legislation quoted above. The IMT notice headed “Carta de Condução: novas regras em vigor a 2 de novembro” is dated 31 October 2012 and announces Decreto-Lei n.º 138/2012 — the same diploma quoted above, not a later change to it. Registering a vehicle and a licence both sit downstream of a tax number, which is covered in how the NIF and the representative rule work, and the running costs sit alongside the rest in what living here costs against the published rates.