Many people said they were having problems with their online returns since last Sunday, the first day that the returns could be filed.

Like last year, all personal income tax returns have to be completed in April and May regardless of whether the pay payers have permanent contracts, are self-employed, pensioners or others.

This will, however, be the first year that the returns have to be filed online as there are no longer any paper forms at the tax offices.

As many pay payers will have severe difficulties completing their returns online, particularly the elderly and the illiterate, the tax office is providing assistance at the tax offices, town halls and citizen’s spaces across the country.

Illiteracy in Portugal is about 5%, but many are old people, often widows, living in the interior of the country and many others are literate but have no computer literacy to complete online tax returns.