IMT: Real estate for resale purchased before Mais Habitação are entitled to exemption?

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Properties for resale purchased before the "More Housing" law are entitled to IMT exemption?  

According to the Tax Authority (AT), properties for resale purchased before the law of the More Housing package, in October 2023, maintain the exemption from Municipal Property Transfer Tax (IMT) for three years.

However, the diploma that transposed the measures of the Mais Habitação package into legislation reduced the deadline for entities dedicated to real estate resale to access IMT exemption from three to one year.

The rules came into force on October 7, 2023 and state that "You will no longer benefit from exemption as soon as it is found that the properties purchased for resale were given a different destination or that they were not resold within one year or were resold again for resale," as reported in a Notícias ao Minuto article, quoting the AT.

This change led a taxpayer to question the Tax Authority if they were exempt from IMT for a property they had acquired on October 14, 2022, or if not, once considering the law in force at the time of the deed. IMT exemption.

However, AT explained that the law in question "constitutes a significant change in one of the essential prerequisites of the purchase of buildings for resale regime, the deadline, strongly limiting it", therefore "in the part that stipulates a shorter deadline for resale, it is prospective application, applying only to acquisitions of real estate for resale, made from the entry into force of the norm, that is, from October 7, 2023, onwards".

So, AT considers that the situation presented by the taxpayer is regulated, and in the absence of other reasons that dictate the expiration of the exemption, "the deadline available for reselling the acquired property is three years, counting from the date of acquisition".  

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