21/02/2024
On January 31st , the Portuguese Tax Authority published the o Circular Instruction no. 40122 of 31-01-2024, which aims to clarify the immediate and mediate impacts that the Legal Regime of the Land Registry(RJCP) [1] will have on the conservation of cadastral and non-cadastral rustic matrices, as well as on rustic land matrixes, from 21st November 2023.
Impact on Tax Procedures
Administrative Complaints Procedure (PRA) of the CGPR[2]
- The procedures for conserving the CGPR and the rustic cadastral matrices ceased to have legal validity with the entry into force of the RJCP on 21st November 2023. Therefore, when dealing with taxpayers, the Portuguese Tax Authorities must always clarify the following:
- That changes to the land registry now follow different rules than those that apply to the Geometric Land Registry;
- That, according to the new regime, the land registry holder (i.e. the owner) will have to contact a land registry technician so that he can carry out the land registry maintenance operation;
- That the alteration of the building matrix is conditioned to the execution of this cadastral conservation operation;
With regard to PRAs submitted before 21st November 2023, Article no. 83 of the RJCP provides for the application of the following two scenarios:
Scenario I – PRA in which the taxpayer has covered the emergency costs:
- Cadastral conservation is carried out by the DGT[3] or the territorially competent CCDR[4], resulting in the issue of the opinion provided for in Article no. 133 of the CMI.
- These conditions apply to PRAs in which the taxpayer has already covered the costs of urgent cadastral conservation with the DGT and has submitted the applications and evidence for the desired operation to the DGT.
- Once the process of updating the cadastral chart has been completed and the above-mentioned opinion has been issued, the file will be returned to the relevant Tax Authority Services for a final decision on the procedure. If this opinion is favourable and the cadastral chart has been updated, with the regular documentation sent, the tax office should update the rural cadastral matrix accordingly.
- Since the new buildings included in the cadastral map will receive a new cadastral[5] entry due to the extinction of the previous one, and since the cadastral sections will only be kept for the buildings already registered, the update of the rustic cadastral matrix must comply with the following:
- Before being registered, the building must be deactivated in the land registry;
- Each new building must correspond to a single article in the matrix and the numbering must be followed in the matrix of each parish, without the identification of the cadastral section.
- If the application that gave rise to the PRA has received an unfavorable opinion and the cadastral chart has not been updated, the competent tax office must make the final decision on the procedure, based on the grounds set out in the opinion and mentioning that, under the terms of article 85 of the CIMI, the rustic cadastral matrix is organized on the basis of the cadastral elements extracted from the cadastral chart.
Scenario II – PRA in which the taxpayer has not covered the costs of the emergency or are awaiting cadastral renewal:
- With the entry into force of the RJCP, situations of alteration to the geometric registry that do not fall under scenario 1 are now subject to the operation of conservation of the land registry.
- Therefore, PRAs that have been initiated and are not processed in accordance with the rules of that scenario should be archived, since the purpose for which the request was made has become unachievable. This includes all PRAs received by the Tax and Customs Authority up to 20 November 2023 and not sent to the DGT, in which the applicant has not paid the costs of the operation to the referred entity.
With regard to all PRAs that fall under this scenario, the services must keep a register of extinguished procedures that must identify the matrix article of the cadastral building that was the subject of the alteration, as well as the existence of all pending requests for certificates.
With the end of the PRA, the updating of the rural land registry of the municipalities where the CGPR was in force will now be carried out exclusively by the tax office, through the common procedure of inscription or of updating, as well as the correction of the land registry.
Real Estate Department
Marta Valadas Coriel | Rita Tigeleiro Afonso | António Vieira | Cláudia Silva de Lima | Sofia Batista Linguiça
[1] Decree-Law no. 72/2023, of 23 August, which approves the Legal Framework for the Land Registry and establishes the National Cadastral Information System and the cadastral chart (RJCP);
[2] Geometric Land Registry
[3] Directorate General for Territory;
[4] Regional Coordination and Development Commission;
[5] Article no.14 of the RJCP.
