Every line that leaves the account on deed day

The two lines fixed by law

IMT, the municipal tax on onerous transfers of immovable property. It is the dominant variable in almost every purchase. Property in the Autonomous Region of Madeira is assessed against separate bracket tables from the mainland, which the Autoridade Tributária publishes as Tabelas IV, V and VI. For a permanent own residence the tax is nil up to €132,933*, source: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira, 2026, read August 26, 2026, and rises by marginal band above it.

Imposto do Selo on the acquisition. Stamp duty of 0.8%*, source: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira, 2026, read August 26, 2026 is charged on the onerous acquisition of the ownership of immovable property, on the same taxable base as IMT, under verba 1.1 of the Tabela Geral do Imposto do Selo. It applies in Madeira on the same terms as on the mainland. There is no regional reduction of this verba, which needs saying plainly, because the regional reductions that do exist in Madeira, on income tax, get generalised into claims about property taxes that are not true.

The tax is charged on the higher of the price and the rateable value

Under article 12 of the Codigo do IMT the taxable value is the greater of the contract price and the valor patrimonial tributário, the rateable value recorded on the caderneta predial. Both taxes above are computed on that figure.

The practical consequence is the one nobody selling a property volunteers. Where a seller proposes writing a lower price on the deed, the tax does not fall, because the rateable value sets a floor underneath it. Where an old property has been recently reassessed, the rateable value can sit above what the market is paying, and the tax is charged on the higher number regardless. The caderneta predial is therefore worth reading before an offer, not after.

Which IMT table applies is decided by the use, unless the buyer is not tax-resident

Since 25 May 2026*, source: Diário da República, in force 25 May 2026, read August 27, 2026 the first question is not which table but whether the buyer is tax-resident in Portugal. If they are not, and the property is housing, article 17 of the Código do IMT charges a flat 7.5%*, source: Diário da República, in force 25 May 2026, read August 27, 2026 and the tables below do not apply at all. It is set out in the guide to IMT in Madeira, together with the two ways of reclaiming the difference afterwards. What follows is the position for a buyer who is tax-resident here.

For that buyer, nationality does not select the table, and neither, by itself, does anything else about them. What selects it is what the property will be.

• Permanent own residence (Tabela IV). Nil up to €132,933*, source: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira, 2026, read August 26, 2026, then marginal bands.
• First permanent own residence, buyer aged thirty-five or under (Tabela V). Nil up to €413,174*, source: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira, 2026, read August 26, 2026.
• Housing that is not a permanent own residence (Tabela VI). Charged from the first euro at 1%*, source: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira, 2026, read August 26, 2026, with no exempt band at the bottom.

A holiday home, a second home and a property bought to let all sit in the third line, whoever is buying and wherever they live. That is why the friendly nil-band figure so often fails to apply to the purchase being contemplated: it belongs to the first line above, not the third. The full tables, and the legal instrument behind them, are in the guide to IMT in Madeira.

Outside housing the rates are flat: 5%*, source: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira, 2026, read August 26, 2026 on rustic land, and 6.5%*, source: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira, 2026, read August 26, 2026 on other urban property and other onerous acquisitions. At the top of the housing tables the marginal structure stops as well: above €1,438,566*, source: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira, 2026, read August 26, 2026 the whole value is taxed at a flat 7.5%*, source: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira, 2026, read August 26, 2026.

Which of these fees has a published schedule, and which has none

Registry fees, the Casa Pronta package price, notarial emoluments and legal fees all appear in English-language guides as confident euro figures, and they are not all the same kind of number. Casa Pronta has a published schedule. Private notarial emoluments and legal fees do not, and the figures quoted for those trace back to practitioner material rather than to any published rule.

The registry and Casa Pronta figures are set by the Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado, and the Ministry of Justice publishes them. They have now been read at source. Casa Pronta charges by the number of registration acts, not by the purchase: €375*, source: Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado / Ministério da Justiça, Um único ato de registo (ex.: aquisição ou hipoteca), read August 28, 2026 for a single act, and €700*, source: Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado / Ministério da Justiça, Mais do que um ato de registo (ex.: compra e venda com financiamento bancário em que são praticados vários registos), read August 28, 2026 where there is more than one — which is what a purchase with bank financing is, because the acquisition and the mortgage are each registered. Each additional property in the same process adds €50*, source: Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado / Ministério da Justiça, Por cada prédio adicional, read August 28, 2026. The registration is inside that charge and is not billed again on top.

Legal fees have no statutory tariff at all. Conveyancing work in Portugal is charged by free agreement, so any range presented as standard is a description of a market, not of a rule, and it changes with the firm, the language of service and the complexity of the title.

A mortgage adds a line on the loan, not on the purchase

Credit operations attract stamp duty under verba 17 of the Tabela Geral do Imposto do Selo, banded by the term of the credit, with a separate charge on the mortgage guarantee itself. The verba is the right one. The band percentages commonly quoted for housing credit were not read from the table for this page, so they are not printed, and the same applies to bank arrangement and valuation fees, which are commercial and vary by lender.

What Banco de Portugal does publish is the loan-to-value ceiling, and what banks actually offer a non-resident is a different question with no published answer. Both are covered in mortgages for non-residents.

Why the total surprises people

Three things, none of which is the headline percentage.

The first is the table. A buyer who reads about a generous nil band, and then buys a house they will not live in permanently, lands in a table that charges from the first euro instead.

The second is the base. The tax is charged on the rateable value where that exceeds the price, so the number in the contract is not always the number the tax is computed on.

The third is the step at the top. The housing tables are marginal in the middle and flat at the top, so crossing €1,438,566*, source: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira, 2026, read August 26, 2026 moves the whole acquisition to a flat 7.5%*, source: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira, 2026, read August 26, 2026 rather than taxing only the excess.

No single percentage for the total appears on this page. Two of its components cannot be traced to a published schedule, and a range built partly on sourced figures and partly on blog figures is a blog figure.