Monthly social security declarations are ending in Portugal

The monthly pay declaration to Portuguese social security is on its way out. Under the Simplified Contribution Cycle (SCC), social security calculates each worker's remuneration and contributions itself. Your company only confirms the numbers, by the 20th of the following month.

The new model was created by Decree-Law 127/2025 of 9 December and has been in force since 1 January 2026. During 2026, joining is voluntary. On 1 January 2027 it becomes mandatory for every employer. This guide is for you, the business owner: it shows what changes, what remains your responsibility, and how (and when) to join.

What changes: before and after

The logic flips: instead of the company declaring everything and social security checking, social security calculates and the company checks. It is the "only once" principle: information the system already holds is not requested again.

August comes with extra breathing room: the deadline to accept or confirm is extended to 25 August, with no surcharges or penalties (Art. 23-B of the Contributory Code).

How the new model works, month by month

The cycle has 4 steps:

1. When hiring, register the employment relationship in Segurança Social Direta before the contract starts: NISS, contract type and permanent remuneration (Art. 29(3)). That remuneration feeds the automatic calculation for every following month. This now also applies to domestic workers, who can no longer be reported on paper.
2. Every month, the system calculates each worker's values based on the permanent remuneration previously declared (Art. 40(7)).
3. By the 20th of the following month, accept or correct. Overtime, bonuses, commissions, unpaid absences? Declare those amounts. Nothing changed? Do nothing: silence counts as acceptance (Art. 40(8)).
4. Between day 1 and day 25, pay the contributions based on the data provided by social security (Art. 43).

What remains your responsibility

The SCC removes the monthly filing, not the reporting duties. Three blocks, three deadlines:

New hires: before the contract starts. Without this report, the law presumes the worker has been employed since the first day of the 3rd month before the month the failure was detected, and contributions are charged from that date (Art. 29(4)). The presumption can be rebutted with proof of the real start date. If you are hiring, read our guide to the permanent contract in Portugal to choose the contract type you will register.

Changes to the relationship: by the 10th of the following month. Termination (with the reason), suspension, change of contract type and change of the permanent remuneration (Art. 32 of the Contributory Code and Art. 8 of the Regulation). Raised a salary in July? Report it by 10 August. If social security already knows the fact through official channels, the duty counts as fulfilled. If a dismissal is coming, the guide on how to dismiss an employee in Portugal explains the 6 legal routes and what to report in each one.

Variable amounts of the month: by the 20th. Overtime, bonuses, commissions and anything outside the permanent remuneration. Confirming these values is the "declaration" of the new model (Art. 40(7)).

Employers with 10 or more workers must file through the Interoperability Services Platform: payroll software connects directly to the social security system (Art. 13-A of the Regulation). With fewer than 10 workers, Segurança Social Direta is enough.

Mistakes, corrections and fines

Getting something wrong no longer means an automatic fine, but the deadlines are tight:

• Correcting a closed month: you can do it in the 2 months after the month of the declaration. Between 2 and 4 months, the correction is still accepted but counts as late. After 4 months, only by formal request to social security, with supporting evidence (Art. 26 of the Regulation).
• Did not confirm values that needed correcting? The system's calculated values are registered for all purposes (Art. 40(9)).
• Fines: completely failing to declare a worker's remuneration is a very serious offence (Art. 40(10)). Differences against what was owed to the worker: a minor offence if corrected within 60 days after the deadline, a serious one after that (Art. 40(11)). Missing the termination, suspension or change reports is a minor offence (Art. 32(5)).
• Ex officio assessment: if the company neither declares nor confirms, social security notifies it and gives 10 days to fix or justify the failure. After that, it registers the data it holds (Art. 40-A). If no base remuneration exists in the system, the record is made at the national minimum wage, 920 euros in 2026, for 30 days of work (Arts. 29 and 30 of the Regulation).

When to join in 2026, and why you should not wait until December

You request adhesion through Segurança Social Direta at any time in 2026. Social security checks the access conditions, confirms, and the new model takes effect the following month (Art. 5 of Decree-Law 127/2025).

Two warnings before you click the button:

• Joining is definitive. From the moment it takes effect, pay declarations filed under the old model are rejected and treated as never filed. There is no way back.
• Do not go alone. [Common interpretation:] joining mid year, in coordination with your accountant, gives you months of slack to fix the permanent remuneration in each employment record and test the confirm-and-pay cycle before the model becomes mandatory for everyone on 1 January 2027. If you do nothing, you are switched over automatically on that date, with no adjustment period.

One important note: this package (Decree-Law 127/2025, Regulatory Decree 7/2025 and Ministerial Order 445/2025/1) only changes social security. The monthly remuneration declaration filed with the tax authority (AT) through the Portal das Finanças, for income tax purposes, stays the same. And while you are at it: if your company still has an old balance in the Work Compensation Fund (FCT), the deadline to claim it back ends on 31 December 2026. Handle both on the same visit to your accountant.

Are you an employee? What this changes for you

Very little day to day: your 11% contribution keeps coming out of your payslip as always. What changes is how your employer reports your data.

There is one thing worth watching: your registered permanent remuneration becomes the basis of the automatic calculation. If it is out of date, say a raise that was never reported or overtime that was never declared, [Common interpretation:] the benefits calculated from your registered remuneration, such as sick pay or unemployment benefit, can come out lower than they should.

Check your Segurança Social Direta account from time to time and compare the registered remuneration with your payslips. If something is missing, ask your employer to correct it: their deadlines are short, and a late correction costs them a fine.