Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho in Parliament. Photo: AFP/Getty Image
As of the first week of April, Portugal’s government will hold weekly lotteries from the official invoices they have received from consumers, a new plan to combat the black market and pursue a more equitable tax system. The government approved the “Fatura da Sorte” (Lucky Invoice in English) initiative on Thursday. The move is meant to fill the country’s coffers as Portugal continues to try lower its public debt, at 128.7% of GDP in the third quarter of 2013, one of the most important demands from Brussels to clean up its economy.
The raffle is intended to encourage consumers to request official receipts for all that they pay for, with the underlying idea being to show the taxman that they got their goods from a legitimate, taxpaying businesses. These receipts include consumers’ personal tax identification number (NIF in its Portuguese acronym), and are delivered electronically by merchants and service providers into the hands of the tax bureau.
By urging citizens to participate and give their official tax ID number the government hopes to “to combat the black market, to prevent tax evasion and unfair competition, in order to pursue a more equitable tax system,” said the Council of Ministers in a statement. The government estimates that the number of contributors demanding invoices will pass four million in 2014. The plan aims to increase the 2.5 million people who indicated their NIF number on invoices in 2013 — already a sizable chunk of the country’s nearly 11 million people.
Paul Nuncio, Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs, said that the weekly prize of the giveaway will be an “upscale” automobile, though no concrete value was given to the reward. The government is stressing the fact that everyone has a shot at winning regardless of the value of the good or service they pay for, as long as it includes the NIF. All invoices issued since January 1, 2025 are immediately qualified to participate and the plan will apply to all sectors of the economy.
If proven to be successful, something the government desires, this unorthodox scheme could migrate in some form into the policy toolboxes of other fiscally stressed European Union countries. We’re looking right at you, Greece, where public debt rose to 171.8% of GDP in the third quarter of last year – and Italy (132.9%) and Spain (93.4%) is in our peripheral vision.
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