The “Lucky Invoice” draw will resume shortly and the draws will be held in January — SEAF

The “Lucky Invoice” draw, which has been temporarily suspended, will resume shortly and at that time the draws for the month of January will be held, the Secretary of State for Tax Affairs, Nuno Félix, told Lusa.

“The ‘Lucky Invoice’, in its current modality consisting of government debt securities, presupposes an articulation between the Tax Office (AT) and the IGCP [Agência de Gestão da Tesouraria e da Dívida Pública]with protocols that need to be renewed on a regular basis and as this renewal is currently underway, the tender will resume shortly,” the minister said in response to Lusa.

Nuno Santos Félix also clarified that, once the competition resumes, “the draws for the month of January will be carried out with the coupons corresponding to the invoices from the beginning of the year”.

For example, there will be two draws for weeks in this competition that rewards taxpayers with treasury certificates worth 35 thousand euros.

On January 27, AT announced in a message on the Finance Portal that “the ‘Fatura da Sorte’ draw has been temporarily suspended, pending the necessary fulfillment of the legal requirements related to the respective procedure”.

According to the same information, the last draw of this competition, which awards 35,000 euros in Treasury certificates every week to consumers who put their NIF on the bills, took place on December 29, the same date as the extraordinary draw.

In information sent to Lusa earlier this month, the IRS said the “Lucky Invoice” has paid out nearly €18.7 million in prizes since its inception, in 2014, until last December.

The “Fatura da Sorte” draw was created in 2014 by the PSD/CDS-PP government of Passos Coelho, to reward “tax citizenship of taxpayers” and fight the parallel economy, the executive announced at the time .

To qualify, consumers must request to have their NIF placed on the invoices of their purchases, the value of which will then be divided into coupons.

Initially, high-value cars were drawn, and in 2016, the socialist government of António Costa maintained the draw, but stopped allocating cars and started handing out Poupança Mais treasury certificates worth 35 thousand euros.