IRS refunds to be faster in 2021

&amp;NewLine;<p>Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs&amp;comma; António Mendonça Mendes&amp;comma; said&amp;comma; in an interview with Lusa&amp;comma; that&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;it is "expected" that IRS refunds will begin to be processed earlier this year&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">IRS refunds to be faster in 2021<&sol;h2>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>Last year&amp;comma; the first refunds were processed on April 21&amp;comma; i.e. 21 days after the start of the annual IRS filing campaign&amp;comma; a longer period than recorded in previous years&amp;comma; but one which Mendonça Mendes considers to have reflected the "appropriate speed for the moment"&amp;comma; i.e. the fact that the country was then facing its first general containment&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>This year, he acknowledges that the context is "similar" to that of last year, but believes that there is a big difference, an accumulated experience which, in 2020, did not exist, particularly with regard to the fact that a significant proportion of the company's employees are already working in the field;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;info&period;portaldasfinancas&period;gov&period;pt&sol;pt&sol;apoio&lowbar;contribuinte&sol;tabela&lowbar;ret&lowbar;doclib&sol;pages&sol;default&period;aspx">tax administration &amp;lpar;AT&amp;rpar;<&sol;a> are carrying out their teleworking duties due to the restrictions imposed by the need to contain the covid-19&amp;period pandemic;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>Last year&amp;comma; when the final stages of preparation for the IRS campaign coincided exactly with the start of containment&amp;comma; it was normal for us to be more cautious in the way we had to proceed with IRS liquidations&amp;comma; said the government official&amp;period; Recalling that the result is not only refunds&amp;comma; but also payments or cancellations of invoices&amp;period; Despite the conditions&amp;comma; the tributary authority managed to make the liquidations well ahead of the legal deadline &amp;lpar;by law set at August 31&amp;rpar;&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>Given that the IRS refund is the result of the sum of withholdings and deductions from taxpayers&amp;comma; António Mendonça Mendes stressed that the government has sought&amp;comma; in recent years&amp;comma; to reflect political decisions in the withholding&amp;period tables;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>The aim is for withholding tax to be increasingly close to what is due, and for refunds to occur more than they do or municipal tax benefits or deductions, and not to result correctly from any excess retention that may exist&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>Given the accuracy of the withholding tax tables in 2020, the average refund could be lower this year;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>Launched with the State Budget for 2020 &amp;lpar;OE2020&amp;rpar;&amp;comma; the &amp;rsquo&amp;semi;IRS Jeunesse will be reflected for the first time in the annual tax return &amp;lpar;IRS&amp;rpar; to be submitted this year, the deadline for which begins this Thursday <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;vivreauportugalconsulting&period;com&sol;25-fevrier-date-limite-pour-valider-vos-factures&sol;" class&equals;"rank-math-link">April 1st <&sol;a>and ends on June 30&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;