Many local accommodation (AL) owners are at risk of losing their establishment’s operating license due to the “many difficulties” they face in meeting the legal obligation to prove their activity. The deadline for submitting documents on ePortugal, the electronic portal of public services, ends today at 11:59 PM, but successive errors in the system prevent these business owners from complying with the law, accuses Adelaide Cruz, member of the board of directors of the Local Accommodation Association in Portugal (ALEP).
This obligation arises from the Mais Habitação legislative framework, which entered into force on October 7. From that date, owners of active AL permits had to prove the activity to keep the company operational, by submitting the latest periodic VAT return related to the AL exploration activity or the latest income declaration for IRS or IRC consequences. “However, we had no way to initiate the process,” says Adelaide Cruz. As he says, the form for submitting the documents was not available on the portal until about three weeks later.
Meanwhile, about a week and a half ago, ALEP received complaints from several owners who were unable to file their lawsuit due to breaches in the eportugal system. According to Adelaide Cruz, many of these businessmen have resorted to the services of the local authorities and Lojas do Cidadão, where they also faced the same problems, as the lawsuit can only be filed in Portugal. “There was an error communicating with the external entity. Start a new process.” This is the message that owners receive from the public portal. “It all takes a lot of time and people are getting worried,” while the deadline is only hours away, the person in charge warns.
If they cannot provide proof of activity, owners may lose their license. The Mais Habitação program also stipulated the immediate suspension of the issuance of new permits throughout the national territory for the types of apartments and accommodation establishments. The exceptions are villas and rooms. The suspension measure can be reversed by the municipalities if there is no housing shortage in the area. However, it is possible to obtain AL permits inland without problems with housing supply, in the Azores and Madeira.
According to Adelaide Cruz’s estimates, 50% of AL owners in Porto have already provided proof, but in Lisbon less than half have completed the process. In the Algarve, where most of the AL establishments in the country are concentrated, the person in charge does not have data, but he recalls that many owners of these tourist properties are foreigners and may not be aware of this obligation. Portugal has more than 120,000 AL licenses.
Dinheiro Vivo tried to clarify the reasons for this technical problem with eportugal, but the Agency for Administrative Modernization, the managing entity of the portal, did not provide any information until the end of this edition.
It is worth remembering that the Mais Habitação program introduced a series of changes to the AL regime. Owners of apartments and accommodation providers integrated into an autonomous construction faction will now pay an extraordinary contribution of 15% (CEAL), which varies depending on operating income, the evolution of rental prices and the weight of local housing in the region. This contribution will go to the Institute for Housing and Urban Rehabilitation to develop housing, home rental and urban rehabilitation programs.
After this edition, the AMA acknowledged yesterday morning, Tuesday, the record of “some instability in the order submission platform, due to the high demand for this service”. As an official AMA source explained to Dinheiro Vivo, the system is now “fully operational. The technical teams are working to ensure the stability necessary for proper use of the service.”
Sónia Santos Pereira is a journalist for Dinheiro Vivo
Source: DN
