If you work in Portugal, part of your income has to go to Segurança Social, the country’s social security system. These contributions build up your contribution record, and that record decides your sick pay, parental benefits, protection if you lose your job, and your future pension.
This is not a tax: IRS, personal income tax, and other taxes are handled by the tax authority, Finanças. Nor is it a fee for the national health service, SNS. The system has its own job — to replace part of your income when you temporarily or permanently can’t work.
Contributions are paid in one of two ways. For an employee, the employer calculates and pays them. A self-employed person settles with the system on their own. Your visa or residence permit doesn’t decide which regime applies to you: what matters is how your work is set up.
Who pays for themselves, and who has the employer pay
If you have an employment contract, work as a domestic employee, or sit on a company’s governing body (as a gerente or administrador) and are paid for it, as a rule, contributions are paid by whoever pays you. They register you as a worker, report your gross pay to Segurança Social every month — before tax and contributions are taken off — and withhold your share.
Under an ordinary employment contract, 11% is withheld from the employee’s salary. The employer adds another 23.75% out of its own pocket. The employee doesn’t need to transfer anything. Their job is to check the payslip and the entries in their contribution record.
On recibos verdes, the “green receipts” used by freelancers, you pay contributions yourself. For that you need an atividade — a self-employed activity — registered with Finanças. A freelancer visa doesn’t replace this registration and doesn’t exempt you from contributions.
A manager or director of their own company shouldn’t automatically assume they are self-employed. As a rule, the company registers them as a member of its governing body and pays the contributions itself. Check which category you are registered under on your payslip and with your accountant.
If you neither work nor run a self-employed activity, having a residence permit or a NISS, your personal social security number, doesn’t by itself oblige you to pay contributions. And the number alone doesn’t prove that any contributions have been paid.
If you are temporarily working in Portugal for a foreign employer, or work in several EU countries at once, another country’s system may apply. An A1 certificate confirms where your social contributions are paid; it is issued by the authority of the country where you are insured. Ask your employer or accountant to show it to you.
What to check and keep an eye on
If your employer pays for you
Find the Segurança Social line on your payslip. It should normally show 11% of your gross salary withheld. Then open your contribution record in your Segurança Social Direta account and make sure the month is there.
If it isn’t, keep the payslip and write to your employer. They have to correct their monthly salary report. If the entry still doesn’t appear, you can ask for your contribution record to be reviewed.
Check your record regularly, not just before you retire or go on sick leave. A mistake can reduce a payment or leave a month out of your insured period.
If you pay for yourself
For a self-employed person this is not a tax but a separate insurance contribution. Taxes go to Finanças; social contributions go to Segurança Social.
In most cases, the system counts 70% of income from services and 20% of income from selling goods. Quarterly income is divided by three, and a rate of 21.4% is applied to the resulting monthly base.
Say a specialist earned €3,000 for services in a quarter. The counted share — the relevant income — comes to €2,100 and the monthly base to €700. The contribution works out at about €150 a month.
This is a simplified calculation. Organised accounting, exemptions and combining self-employment with a salaried job can all change it.
When to file the declaration
The quarterly declaration is filed in January, April, July and October and covers income for the previous three months. You can file or correct it in the section for self-employed workers.
Once the quarterly declaration is filed, your online account shows the monthly base and the amount due. You pay that amount every month until the next quarterly calculation. Even with zero income you may still have to file. Don’t skip it unless the system clearly shows an exemption.
How and when to pay
The declaration is filed once a quarter, but the contribution is paid every month — between the 10th and the 20th of the following month. The payment for September, for example, is due in October.
Open the “Payments and debts” section. There you can check the amount and the payment details. You can pay at a cash machine or through online banking, or set up a direct debit.
After you first open a self-employed activity, contributions are usually not charged for 12 months. But it’s best to confirm the exemption in your online account. These months don’t count towards your record as a self-employed worker.
If you have an employment contract and work on recibos verdes at the same time, you may not have to pay contributions on the self-employed side. Three conditions apply. Your employer and your client are different companies with no connection to each other. Your salary is at least €537.13 a month. Your relevant income from receipts averages less than €2,148.52 a month — for services, that means invoicing up to roughly €3,069. Both thresholds are tied to the IAS, the social support index, which is revised every January. The figures may change in 2027.
Segurança Social normally applies the exemption on its own if your salary is already in the system. Check this in your online account. If the exemption isn’t there but you meet the conditions, apply for it.
What contributions give you
The right to a benefit doesn’t appear with your first payment. Each scheme looks at how long you have contributed, your registered income and whether you have any unpaid contributions.
- Sick pay, but not from day one. For employees, benefit for ordinary illness usually starts on the fourth day; for the self-employed, on the eleventh. You need an electronic sick note. The conditions are on the sickness benefit page.
- Parental benefits. Both employees and the self-employed can receive them. The amount and duration depend on your record and on the type of leave you choose. The rules are in the maternity and paternity section.
- Benefits if you lose your job. An employee may be entitled to unemployment benefit after involuntary dismissal. There is no ordinary unemployment benefit for the self-employed. Separate protection applies to those who get more than half of their income from a single client.
- Pension and family protection. Contributions build the record used for your pension, disability benefits and payments to your family if you die. An ordinary old-age pension generally requires at least 15 years of entries.
Contributions don’t replace registering with the national health service, and they don’t cover accidents at work either: a self-employed person usually needs a separate policy for that.
What to check in your online account
Log in to Segurança Social Direta, the official social security online account.
- Check your personal details and IBAN. Benefits are paid into this account. Your phone number and email are needed for notifications.
- Open your contribution record. An employee should see every month worked, with the correct salary. A self-employed person should see their declarations and the calculated base.
- Check payments and debts. A self-employed person should also check the next amount due, the payment deadline and any exemptions in force.
- Look at your applications and messages. Many benefits have to be claimed by you. Keep confirmation of every application you send.
If an employee finds a month missing, the first step is the payslip and a message to the employer. If a self-employed person sees the wrong amount, check the quarterly declaration first. Both are easier to fix now than when you are already claiming a benefit.
