The tourist tax, which brought in almost half a million euros in 2023 to the municipality, will be implemented all year round rather than only during the high season. The tax, which cost €1.5 per night, began being charged in March 2020, and since then it has only been implemented between March and October.
Paying the tax is only necessary for the first four nights; after that, you do not have to continue doing so. The fee, which is paid per person for each night, applies only to guests which are over the age of 16. In contrast to what already occurs in other municipalities, the Chamber’s President Ricardo Rio stated that the present regulations allow "very broad exemptions”, adding that “the logic of high season has been diluted”. The funds earned will go towards funding activities for tourists, cleaning and conserving public areas, and promoting tourism.
If medical treatment is the reason for the guest's stay, they are not required to pay as long as they can show documentation proving their appointment or the supply of medical services. This exemption also applies to any accompanying guests. In addition, visitors who are accommodated because of a social emergency or civil protection declaration, as well as those with disabilities equal to or greater than 60 percent, are exempt from paying the fee if they can provide records supporting their status.
I thought it was stupid to have to pay this ridiculous tourist tax when I checked into a hotel in Lisbon. Then I realised that I was in Portugal, a country where those in power like to extort money from its citizens. Foreign and national property owners, myself included, are being forced to pay IMI for land we own in the Algarve, but on which we are not allowed to build because of a scam by the local authorities. See details in Processo (court case) Nº 59203.2TAEVR.
P.S. Hopefully Montenegro will abolish both scams - the tourist tax and the land scam. Otherwise we will have to wait for Chega to step in. Ventura should move fast, because as a retired expatriate (retornado is the politically correct term used by the Portuguese political elite) I will be six feet under by the time he is sworn in.
By João from Other on 25 Mar 2024, 11:10