<![CDATA[ Dúvidas na contagem dos anos do IRS Jovem levam contribuintes a questionar a AT ]]>

The counting of 10 years of work for the purposes of the IRS Jovem is raising doubts among potential beneficiaries who have sent several requests for binding information to the Tax and Customs Authority (AT).

Half a dozen responses to these requests for binding information were recently published by the AT and the content reveals the difficulty that workers under 35 have in understanding which year of work they will be completing in 2025 and which portion of exempt income they can benefit from. The situations are diverse and have different realities behind them. In one of the cases, the taxpayer indicates having obtained income (of reduced value) from work in 2016 and 2017, to which he added a scientific initiation grant (not subject to IRS), asking the AT whether, for the purposes of the IRS Jovem, the years of work would only be counted from 2018 and whether he would benefit from an IRS exemption on 50% of the income in 2025. However, the response was negative, with the tax authorities informing him that he is, in fact, completing the 10th year of work in 2025 - the last possible year of the benefit - and is entitled to an exemption of 25%. The new IRS Jovem model, which came into force this year, grants an exemption from IRS on 100% of income in the first year of work, 75% from the 2nd to the 4th year, 50% from the 5th to the 7th year and 25% in the remaining three years, up to a limit of approximately 55 times the social support index (which this year is equivalent to 28,737.50 euros), with the normal tax rate being applied to the excess. Young people can benefit from this regime up to the age of 35, with this limit being combined with the 10-year maximum period during which they can be covered by the tax benefit. The rules determine that years of work do not include those in which the young person was considered a tax dependent (i.e. in which he/she submitted his/her IRS with his/her parents, despite having already worked) or breaks to study or when he/she was unemployed, for example. Another taxpayer started working in 2015, having declared the income obtained in that year as a dependent of his parents' household. From 2016 onwards, he details, he started to file his IRS alone and asked the AT if he could benefit from the 25% IRS exemption for the years 2025 and 2026. Once again, the AT's response was negative: "It is found that the applicant is under 35 years of age and that she has already obtained income from dependent and/or independent work, in 9 years - the years 2016 to 2024 -, with the year 2025 being the 10th year of obtaining income [...]. For the year 2026, the benefit in question will no longer apply". Among the cases now published is also that of a taxpayer aged 32, who started working (and filing his IRS alone) in 2016 without ever having benefited from the IRS Jovem that was in force previously. Given this situation, he asks what year of the regime he falls under in 2025, with the AT clarifying that he is in the 10th and last possible year. In the 10th year of work for the purposes of calculating the IRS Jovem (Young Taxpayer Income Tax) there is also another person who started working in 2015, but stopped working in 2016 to finish his degree - which means that this year is not included in the count. One of the requests for binding information that reveals the most doubts is that of another taxpayer who started working in 2018 and to this day, "is 29 years old" and asks "if he can benefit from the IRS Jovem (Young Taxpayer Income Tax) and, if so, in which exemption bracket he falls (100% or 25%)", given that in 2018 he filed his IRS with his parents. In this case, explains the AT, the applicable exemption is none of those mentioned, being 50% since 2025 "corresponds to the 7th year of obtaining income".

The tax authorities also remind young people that they must opt ​​for the IRS Jovem program in their annual income tax return, taking into account that their tax situation must be regularized for the benefit to be applicable to them.

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