António Costa spoke about potential changes in income tax bands within the State Budget for 2022 during an interview with TVI, after being confronted with criticisms about the existence of the high tax burden in Portugal.

“We are currently doing very serious work to identify the possibility of doing what we have not been able to do this year in the next State Budget for 2022, which is yet another stepping stone,” said the prime minister.

At this point, Costa argued that the priority will be to introduce changes in two IRS income brackets, namely the third and the sixth.

“In the third level, which covers income between €10,000 and €20,000, we have a huge difference. Then there is the sixth step, between €36,000 and €80,000, where there is a gigantic difference”, he said.

In the interview, regarding taxation, António Costa refused to make Portugal stand out in the European Union for having a high tax burden, but presented a justification for the current weight of taxes in the country.

“As you recall, during the time of Troika, there was a great compression of the ranks [of the IRS]. We have already done a first split of the echelons, we had planned to do a second split for this year and we had to postpone it because of the crisis”, he said.