The new rules to benefit from the IRS (Personal Income Tax) exemption on capital gains in the sale of homes have already entered on September 11. 2024. 

With this new diploma (Decree-Law no 57/2024, already been published in the Diário da República) which puts into force the new rules on exemption from capital gains in the purchase and sale of houses it is now possible to buy and sell your own permanent home within one year instead of two (as previous), this new rules facilitates the geographical mobility of families. But this decree-law was published without retroactive effect, which means that in 2024 there is a dual regime for the application of the exemption of capital gains (the new and the old regime).

Therefore; The date of sale of the house ends up setting the applicable legal framework, which will have an impact on next year’s IRS (Personal Income Tax) declaration.

- Anyone who sells the house by 10 September 2024 must have lived in it for two years, otherwise they will not be able to benefit from the scheme.

- But whoever sold the house on or after September 11, 2024 will only have to have lived in the house for one year to not pay IRS on real estate capital gains

Thus, the schemes (old or new) apply depending on the date of sale of the property:

- Until September 10, 2024: in these transactions the old regime applies, where the minimum period between the sale of own and permanent housing and the purchase of a new house with the same purpose is 24 months. Families can only benefit from the IRS exemption on capital gains from the sale of the house if they have not done so in the previous three years;

- From 11 September 2024 (inclusive): as of this date, the new tax regime of IRS exemption on capital gains already applies. Thus, the period between the purchase and sale of the house (for own and permanent housing) becomes 12 months. And the family does not have to worry about whether or not they have benefited from the gains, because they can use this scheme more than once.