IMT Jovem: who qualifies, up to what value, and what it actually saves

What everyone calls “IMT Jovem” is really three separate reliefs that travel together because they share almost all their conditions. Decree-Law 48-A/2024 of 25 July created two: the IMT exemption, by adding paragraph 2 to article 9 of the IMT Code, and the stamp duty deduction, by adding article 7-A to the Stamp Duty Code. Decree-Law 48-D/2024 of 31 July created the third, on registration fees.

All of them take effect from 1 August 2024 and apply to deeds signed from that date. There is no retroactive effect: buying earlier recovers nothing.

The figures move. Full relief has previously run to €316,772 in 2024 and €324,058 in 2025; today it runs to €330,539, because Law 73-A/2025 of 30 December updated the article 17 brackets. If you find one of the older figures in an undated article, you are reading a page nobody has maintained.

• IMT exemption. Article 9(2) of the IMT Code, with a reduced-rate table above the threshold under article 17(1)(b).
• Stamp duty deduction. Article 7-A of the Stamp Duty Code. Not an exemption: a deduction from the assessed duty, capped.
• Registration fees. Article 28(37) to (41) of the registry and notary fee regulation, as amended by Decree-Law 48-D/2024.

Article 9(2) of the IMT Code requires the buyer to be 35 or under on the date of transfer and not to be treated as a dependant for income tax purposes under article 13 of the IRS Code in the year of the transfer. Being your parents’ dependant in the year you buy kills the relief, even at 34 and even with your own income.

It must be the first acquisition of an urban property or unit used exclusively as an own permanent home. And paragraph 3 shuts the door on prior owners: buyers who hold the ownership right, or a fractional form of that right, over residential urban property on the date of transfer or at any point in the previous three years are excluded. Inheriting a share of a house two years ago counts.

The word “exclusively” does work too. In a 2026 binding ruling the tax authority refused the relief to a buyer resident abroad who declared she intended to move in several years after the deed: the property must be put to use as the buyer’s own permanent home within six months of acquisition, which implies resident status in Portugal.

Where the property becomes matrimonial common property, paragraph 4 requires the conditions to be checked for each spouse individually, in equal shares, with one return each. If only one of the two qualifies, only half the acquisition benefits.

• 35 or under. On the date of transfer, not the date of the promissory contract or of loan approval.
• Not an income tax dependant. In the year of the transfer, under article 13 of the IRS Code.
• First acquisition. Of an urban property or unit used exclusively as an own permanent home.
• No home in the previous three years. No ownership or fractional right over residential urban property, then or in the three years before.
• Move in within six months. The property must be put to use as an own permanent home within six months of acquisition.

Up to €330,539 of taxable value, IMT is zero. On a €250,000 purchase as an own permanent home, a buyer without the relief pays €7,042.04 of IMT and €2,000.00 of stamp duty; a buyer with it pays nothing on either. Adding the registration discount, the total difference is €9,042.04.

Between €330,539 and €660,982 there is a reduced rate, not an exemption: 8% applies to the value and the table’s deduction is subtracted, which amounts to taxing only the excess over the threshold. On a €400,000 purchase, IMT is €5,556.88 instead of €18,236.65, and stamp duty is €555.69 instead of €3,200.00. Total saving: €15,324.08.

Above €660,982 the young buyers’ table becomes numerically identical to the general one: a flat 6% and then 7.5%, exactly as for any other buyer of an own permanent home. On a €700,000 purchase, IMT is €42,000.00 with or without the relief. What survives is the stamp duty deduction, explained next.

The table applies to the taxable value under article 12 of the IMT Code: the higher of the deed value and the rateable value.

Article 7-A of the Stamp Duty Code does not exempt the purchase: it gives a deduction from the item 1.1 duty, up to the amount assessed, capped at that item applied to the top of the first bracket of the young buyers’ table. In 2026 that cap is €330,539.00 — 0.8% of €330,539.

Below the threshold the deduction consumes the whole charge and the duty is zero. Above it, the difference remains: on a €400,000 purchase the duty is €555.69, which is 0.8% of the price less that €330,539.00.

The article applies to acquisitions under article 9(2) to (5) and also under article 17(1)(b) of the IMT Code. That subparagraph (b) carries a table with no ceiling — it includes the flat 6% and 7.5% rows — so the deduction follows the acquisition at any value. On a €700,000 purchase, where the IMT advantage has gone entirely, the duty is still €5,600.00 instead of €5,600.00.

This is where a hurried reading goes wrong: the article 9 exemption has a value ceiling, the article 7-A deduction has an amount ceiling. They are different things, and it is the second that survives above the 8% bracket.

Decree-Law 48-D/2024 added to article 28 of the registry and notary fee regulation an exemption from the fees for registering a first acquisition and for registering the mortgage securing the loan for it. The ceiling here is defined by a different route: the top of the fourth bracket of the general own-permanent-home table, which in 2026 also gives €330,539 — but by a different path, with no guarantee the two will always coincide.

Where the Casa Pronta desk is used, paragraph 40 does not exempt: it reduces. The procedure’s price drops by €225 where a single fact is registered and by €450 where more than one is. In practice a purchase with a mortgage costs €700.00 instead of the usual €700.00.

Where there are several buyers and only some meet the conditions, registration fees are reduced proportionally and the desk discount is halved. Going through a private notary keeps the registration fee exemption, but the notary’s own fees are not covered.

• Acquisition registration. Exempt, within the value ceiling.
• Mortgage registration. Exempt, where it secures the loan taken for that acquisition.
• Casa Pronta desk. A €225 reduction for one fact and €450 for more than one.
• Only one buyer eligible. The reduction is halved, in proportion to the qualifying share.

In the Azores and Madeira the uplifted table applies, under the single article of Law 21/90. Full IMT Jovem relief runs to €413,174, and the reduced 8% rate extends to €826,228.

This site’s calculator applies the mainland tables. In the islands, use the table below — the personal conditions are exactly the same, because they come from the IMT Code and not from the table.

Article 11(8) of the IMT Code lists the situations in which the exemption and the rate reduction are lost, and article 7-A(3) of the Stamp Duty Code points at the same list. Losing the relief means paying the tax that was not paid.

It is lost if the property is put to a use other than the one the relief rested on within six years of acquisition. The law carves out three cases: a sale; a change in household composition through marriage, civil partnership, the dissolution of either, or an increase in dependants, provided the property stays exclusively residential; and a change of workplace to more than 100 km from the property, on the same condition.

It is also lost if the property is not put to use as an own permanent home within six months of acquisition — a short deadline, and the one that most often catches buyers planning renovations. And it is lost if, at any point in those six years, the buyer becomes an income tax dependant under article 13 of the IRS Code.

Letting out a home bought with IMT Jovem is putting it to a different use. It is not among the exceptions.

If you know you will stop meeting the conditions, regularise the assessment yourself: public bodies are required to report facts that cause reliefs to lapse.

The relief is neither automatic nor granted by the notary: it is claimed on the Modelo 1 IMT return filed on the tax portal before the deed. That is where you give the tax number of the buyer aged 35 or under, the marital status and, for separate-property marriages, the regime.

Reliefs are claimed by code in the tax benefits box: one code for IMT Jovem and another for the item 1.1 stamp duty. They are two separate codes, and forgetting the second costs exactly the amount of the duty.

Where the property becomes matrimonial common property, each spouse files their own return for half the acquisition value. The tax authority publishes separate filing guidance for that case.

Before validating, use the return’s own simulation button: it is the only simulation that applies the administration’s reading to your actual case, including the rateable value on the register.