Invoices for essential services do not only include amounts related to consumption. It is important to know what you pay.
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Do you usually look carefully at the invoices you receive? If you’ve ever been curious and analyzed your energy or water bills better, you’ve certainly noticed a series of values that don’t correspond to consumption.
These additional amounts that appear on essential service invoices relate to fees and taxes charged by the State and municipalities. In some cases, they have an environmental component, penalizing higher consumption. Others, such as the Audiovisual Contribution, are intended to finance services such as public radio and television.
VAT is the common tax for all essential services, although at different rates (6% and 23%). In addition to focusing on consumption, it also applies to other fees, which means that, even if you do not spend water, electricity or gas, you will be paying VAT.
Each essential service has its own fees and taxes and some vary from county to county. This is what happens, for example, with the Subsoil Occupancy Tax, charged on the natural gas bill.
There are many calculations to do to understand all the components of your invoices. To understand what the values that appear in the accounts mean, read this article from Positive Balance.
Learn more about other contents of Saldo Positivo.
O Positive Balance is Caixa Geral de Depósitos’ financial literacy website and aims to make life easier for the Portuguese with regard to money management with the regular publication of articles, news, guides and infographics.
