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Electronic notifications: 5 rules so you don’t miss a deadline over a letter you never saw
Step Inside Accounting · Practical guide
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1. The company must have an electronic address
Companies subject to corporate tax (IRC) must have an electronic mailbox (ViaCTT) or sign up for electronic notifications on the Tax Authority’s portal (Portal das Finanças). This must be done within 30 days of starting activity.
If the company does not sign up, it risks a fine and the Tax Authority registers it automatically for portal notifications. In practice, notifications will arrive anyway. The difference is whether anyone reads them.
2. It counts as received, even unopened
An electronic notification does not wait for you to open it. It is deemed delivered on a fixed date:
- Portal das Finanças: on the 5th day after it becomes available.
- Electronic mailbox (ViaCTT): on the 15th day for notifications and on the 5th day for summonses.
From that date, the deadlines to pay, reply or object start running.
Example
A notification becomes available on the Portal das Finanças on 3 November. It counts as received on 8 November, even if you only open it in December. If you had 15 days to reply, the deadline may already be over.
3. What you lose by not reading
Notifications almost always come with a deadline. If you do not read them, you lose, for example:
- The chance to pay a fine at a reduced amount.
- The deadline to pay a tax without interest.
- The opportunity to defend yourself in an inspection or a correction to your returns.
- The deadline to respond to a summons in a tax enforcement procedure, before an attachment of assets.
4. Turn on alerts, but don’t rely only on them
On the Portal das Finanças, under “A minha Área > Notificações e Citações > Gerir canais”, you can confirm your email and turn on alerts for new notifications. On ViaCTT you can get alerts by email and SMS.
Alerts are only reminders. What counts legally is the notification on the portal or in the mailbox, even if the email never arrives or lands in spam. Decide who in the company, or at your accountant’s, checks the notifications.
5. Social Security Direct sends notifications too
A company that pays salaries, including the managing partner’s, is an employer. So it must sign up for Social Security’s electronic notifications, which arrive in Segurança Social Direta.
Here too, a notification is deemed delivered on the 5th day after it becomes available. Debt notices, missing payroll returns and administrative offence proceedings all arrive this way.
Team tip
Once a week, open the notifications area of the Portal das Finanças and Segurança Social Direta, or ask us to do it for you. Five minutes a week saves weeks of problems.
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This article is for information only and does not replace professional advice. Figures and rules are those in force at the date of publication and may change.
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