Social Security Institute president denies guidance from previous IRS watchdog

The President of the Social Security Institute (ISS), Ana Margarida Vázquez, said this Thursday that there were no agreements or instructions from the previous body regarding the dates for the adjustment of IRS withholdings from pensions.

“There was no agreement on dates or anything, no instructions from the previous guardianship” and “no decision was made on the retention tables with either the guardianship or any guardianship, neither this nor the previous one.” “, – he said. ISS President during parliamentary hearings.

This hearing was held at the request of the SDP and SDS-PP following the adjustment in April and May of the tax service withheld from pensions paid in January, which resulted in a refund of over-withheld tax to 184 thousand pensioners (which was done with the April pension) and the amount withheld less from 143,800 pensioners (taking into account the May pension, which in this case led to a decrease in the amount of this pension).

During the hearing, Ana Margarida Vázquez was questioned about the fact that the agreement was concluded in those months, and not in February, but she rejected the insinuations of a political nature, emphasizing that this was a technical issue and that the agreement was made necessary due to the Temporary Detentions when registering January pensions do not completely coincide with the final ones.

Ana Margarida Vázquez also said that, as a rule, the IRS preliminary tables are sent by the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, which in turn sends them to ISS and that since they occur infrequently, adjustments are not published.

On April 29, after the Jornal de Negócios reported the case of retirees facing a reduction in the net value of their May pension, ISS clarified that adjustments had been made to the IRS withholding of pensions for April and May to correct the withholding made. in January, according to the “preliminary” table, for 328 thousand pensioners.

This issue of the provisional withholding table and subsequent adjustments took the new government by surprise, with the cabinet of current Labor Minister Maria do Rosario Ramalho expressing “surprise” and stressing that the issue had not been passed on to the previous leader, who is accused of wanting to give an “artificial idea” of raising pensions before the legislative elections.

Maria do Rosario Ramalho also noted the fact that this topic was not raised in her meeting with the President of the ISS after she took charge of the Ministry of Labor.

At the hearing today, the ISS president said she did not raise the topic in the “just over an hour” meeting she had with the minister, saying she raised topics that required a political decision or that seemed more important to her than this issue. because the income tax adjustment “is a purely technical matter that does not require or require any permission from the guardianship” because “what we are doing is applying the law.”

Despite this, he stated that he informed the Minister of Social Security about the matter when he received questions from the Jornal de Negócios on April 24.

In response to questions asked at the hearing, the ISS president said that the adjustments made in May (paying a higher amount of tax to compensate for what was paid less in January) amounted to an average of about 8.8 euros.

Thus, for pensions worth between 944.80 euros and 1,433 euros, the tax refund ranged from one to five euros; for pensions from 1,433 to 1,816 euros the return was eight euros, and for pensions from 1,816 to 3,364 it was about 12 euros.