Exemption or reduction of Social Security contribution payments

Employers may benefit from a reduction in social security contribution payments for young individuals seeking their first job and for long-term unemployed individuals, for periods of five and three years, respectively. Additionally, a total exemption from the employer's social security contribution payment is available for very long-term unemployed individuals for a period of three years.

The hiring incentives apply to workers integrated into one of the following groups:

Young individuals seeking their first job: Individuals aged up to 30 years inclusive who have never engaged in work under a permanent employment contract.
Long-term unemployed individuals: Individuals who, at the time of the contract, are available for work and have been registered with Employment Centres for 12 months or more.
Very long-term unemployed individuals: Individuals aged 45 or older who, at the time of the contract, are available for work and have been registered with Employment Centres for 25 months or more.

Requirements

Employers are entitled to the exemption if they cumulatively meet the following conditions:

They are regularly constituted and duly registered.
They have their contributory and tax situation regularised with the Social Security and the Tax and Customs Authority.

Note: Partial exemption or total exemption from contribution payments can be resumed from the month following the regularisation of their contributory situation with the Social Security and the Tax Authority.

They have no delays in the payment of wages.
They enter into a permanent employment contract with the worker, either full-time or part-time.
They have, at the time of application, a total number of employees greater than the average number of employees registered in the 12 months immediately preceding the application, considering new hires as follows:
- Workers hired under these hiring incentives.
- Situations of hiring to replace a worker covered by these incentives whose employment contract has been terminated for reasons attributable to the worker.

Employers are not entitled to the exemption from contribution payments if they have workers covered by:

Contributory schemes with rates lower than those of the majority of employees, except for entities whose rate reduction results from being non-profit legal entities or belonging to economically weak sectors.
Bases of incidence set at values lower than actual remuneration or conventional remuneration.

How to obtain

By accessing the following link, you will able the consulte all the documentation: seg-social.pt