How to pay the month's withholding taxes (payment guide)

What is it for?

The Personal Income Tax (IRS) or Corporate Income Tax (IRC) withholdings the company made on supplier invoices are paid over to the State every month. The withholding guide gathers the month's withholdings by income type, shows the total and the deadline, and tracks them until payment: Draft, Declared and Paid.

Paying the guide is a separate action, on the Finanças portal, where the company gets the payment reference. The product's guide checks that the amount paid, registered with the right month, covers the total.

Warning: today the payment registered with the guide does not reduce the withholding account. Steps 1 to 5 (generate, declare and pay on the Finanças portal) do not have this problem. In steps 6 and 7, the payment debits the suppliers account (2211 Fornecedores gerais) and not 242 Retenção de impostos sobre rendimentos: the withholding the invoice left in credit on 242 stays there after the guide becomes Paid. Until this is fixed, do not register the withholding payment this way without agreeing the treatment with the certified accountant. Without that payment, the guide stays Declared and the Form 10 check shows Difference for that month. Pending validation by a certified accountant: accounting treatment of the withholding payment (SNC, account 242 and the partner account).

When to use it?

• Every month in which the company paid income subject to withholding (for example the fees of a self-employed professional).
• When the deadline is approaching: the guide shows a banner when the deadline has passed and it is not paid.
• To check, before submitting Form 10, that each month had a guide and a payment.
• It is not for payroll withholdings (employment income, category A): the guide only adds up the withholdings on supplier invoices (see “Important notes”).

Where to find it?

• Accounting › Declare › Withholding tax › What is there to do with the withholdings?, and under Supporting lists the Withholding guides list (the guides are opened from here; the menu has no entry of its own).
• Accounting › Declare › Withholding tax › Withholdings of the period: the report to check the amounts (Month, Quarter or Year; Export PDF and Export).
• The payment to the State is registered in Accounting › Reconcile › Banks and cash › Supplier payments.

Before you start

• Create and declare the guide: the profile is Fiscal officer. The Accountant can open the list and the guides, but their list has no New button.
• Register the payment: the Accountant (or the Fiscal officer) does it in Supplier payments.
• The month's invoices must be confirmed and paid to the supplier: the guide adds up by the invoice's payment date. In the example, invoice FTF/2026/00043 (Rui Matos, 14/05/2026, withholding of €184.00, paid on 10/06/2026) goes into the June guide, not the May one. To configure the supplier's withholding, see How to configure withholding taxes.
• The State partner exists: in the demo, Autoridade Tributária (demonstração).

How to use it

1. As Fiscal officer, open Declare › Withholding tax › What is there to do with the withholdings?, click Withholding guides and then New.
2. In Tax, choose IRS withholding (the other option is IRC withholding). In Month, choose the 1st day of the month of the payments, here 01/06/2026. The Due date appears automatically: 20/07/2026, the 20th of the following month (Dia legal?, legal day). When the 20th falls on a non-working day, the Due date moves to the next working day.
3. Click Generate. The By income type table shows one line per withholding rule, with Income code, Beneficiaries, Documents, Basis and Amount withheld: in the example, IRS cat. B — atividades profissionais da tabela do art. 151.º, code B, 1 beneficiary, 1 document, basis €800.00 and amount withheld €184.00. The Total to pay is €184.00. If an invoice is missing, confirm it and the supplier payment and click Generate again (only possible while the guide is a draft). The arrow button on the line opens that line's documents.
4. Check the amounts against the Withholdings of the period report (optional step) and click the blue button, which today is called Problem and declares the guide. The guide becomes Declared, shows Declared and not paid €184.00 and gets the Print button (a PDF “Internal document without fiscal value”, with the same amounts). The Export to spreadsheet button, available since the draft, saves the same table as XLSX. Pending validation by a certified accountant: deadline (20th of the following month, with a non-working day moving to the next working day) and the withholdings the guide must include (CIRS, art. 98.º and 101.º; CIRC, art. 94.º; Tax Procedure and Process Code (CPPT), art. 20.º).
5. Pay the reference on the Finanças portal. If you have the payment slip number (1 to 11 digits), type it in Payment slip number and save.
6. First read the warning at the start of the article. As Accountant, open Supplier payments and New. Keep Payment Type on Send. In Supplier, choose Autoridade Tributária (demonstração); in Amount, 184.00; in Date, the payment date (15/07/2026).
7. In Payment guide to the State, choose IRS withholding and, in Guide period, the month of the withholdings (01/06/2026): a late guide counts in the month it refers to, not the month in which it is paid. Check the amount and the supplier (the product does not check them against the guide: see “Common problems”), check that the Journal is Bank and click Confirm. The payment becomes Paid.
8. Go back to the guide, as Fiscal officer, and click Mark as paid. The guide becomes Paid, with Paid €184.00, Declared and not paid €0.00 and Paid on 15/07/2026.

Expected result

• The guide is Paid, with the payment date in Paid on, and the Payments tab shows the linked payment.

• Generate, Declare (the Problem button) and Mark as paid create no journal entries: the guides only record the state.

• What the payment posts today (checked in the ledger, payment PBNK1/2026/00042, with the partner Autoridade Tributária):

  Account	Debit	Credit
  2211 Fornecedores gerais	€184.00
  120003 Pagamentos Pendentes		€184.00

  This entry is today's behaviour, not the treatment expected for a withholding. Account 242 Retenção de impostos sobre rendimentos, where the invoice's withholding was left in credit, is not moved: it keeps the credit balance of the withholdings and the partner is left with a debit balance on 2211. A withholding paid to the State should reduce 242; fiscaldoo does not do so yet.

• The bank balance only goes down when this payment is reconciled with the statement (How to reconcile bank transactions): until then, the amount is in 120003 Pagamentos Pendentes, and appears as an “in transit” payment in the unreconciled items, even though the journal is called Bank.

• A Declared or Paid guide can no longer be deleted or have its tax or month changed.

Important notes

• Account 242 does not go down. The payment debits 2211 and leaves open the partner's debit balance and the withholding in credit on 242. The product does not let you choose the payment's target account. fiscaldoo proposes no adjustment: how to treat this difference is decided with the certified accountant. Pending validation by a certified accountant: accounting treatment of the withholding payment (SNC, account 242 and the partner account).

• The product does not check the payment's amount or supplier. The guide adds up all confirmed payments with the same tax and the same month, whatever the supplier and the amount (see “Common problems”). Check them before you Confirm.
• Payroll. Payroll withholdings are also on 242 (partner Autoridade Tributária), but the guide does not add them up: in June 2026 the guide has only the €800.00 invoice. Paying those withholdings is handled in payroll.
• Correcting after declaring. A declared guide cannot be changed. A late correction is made in the following month's guide, with the certified accountant. Pending validation by a certified accountant: correction of withholdings for months already submitted.
• Deadline passed. With the deadline passed and the guide unpaid, the guide shows the banner “The deadline has passed and the guide is not paid”. The June 2026 guide shows it today (01/11/2026).

Common problems

“The guide … has no lines”

• Symptom: when you click the blue button on a guide without Generate, “Invalid Operation — The guide IRC withholding 2026-12 has no lines. Press “Generate” first; if there were no withholdings in the month, no guide is needed.”
• What to do: click Generate. If it still has no lines (in the example, an IRC guide for December, or an IRS one for February 2026, with no supplier payments that month), there were no withholdings paid that month: no guide is needed. The empty draft can stay in the list or be deleted.

“The payments marked as the guide … add up to €0.00”

• Symptom: when you click Mark as paid, “Invalid Operation — The payments marked as the guide of IRS withholding 2026-06 add up to €0.00, below the total €184.00. Register the payment (type “Send”) and fill in “Payment guide to the State” and the month, then try again.”
• Cause: there is no confirmed payment, of type Send, with this guide and its Guide period, or the amount is less than the total.
• What to do: register the payment as in steps 6 and 7. Two partial payments for the same month are added together.

“There is already a guide for this company, tax and month”

• Symptom: when saving a duplicate guide, “Validation Error — The operation cannot be completed: There is already a guide for this company, tax and month.”
• What to do: open the guide that already exists in the list.

The payment is larger than the guide total

• Symptom: with a second payment of €70.00 to the Autoridade Tributária for the June guide, the guide shows Paid €254.00 and Declared and not paid -€70.00. The product neither refuses nor warns.
• Cause: the guide only checks that the sum covers the total (as a minimum); it has no maximum.
• What to do: open the extra payment and click Cancel with reason: the payment stops counting (the guide goes back to Paid €184.00 and Declared and not paid €0.00). The Payment guide to the State and Guide period fields of a confirmed payment cannot be changed: if they are wrong, cancel with reason and register another.

Payment to a supplier that is not the State

• Symptom: a payment of €30.00 to Papelaria Central, with Payment guide to the State “IRS withholding” and Guide period 01/06/2026, starts counting towards the June guide (Paid €284.00). The product does not ask whether the supplier is the State.
• What to do: only fill in Payment guide to the State on payments to the Autoridade Tributária. If you made a mistake, cancel the payment with reason, as in the previous case.