How to apply Social Security incentives and exemptions

What is it for?

When Social Security grants the company a reduction of or exemption from the contribution for an employee, you record it here. fiscaldoo applies the reduced rate on the payslips of the period, if the contributory situation is confirmed. Only the company's rate changes: the employee's stays the same.

When to use it?

• After receiving the Social Security decision granting the incentive.
• When you confirm that the contributory situation is in order.
• Do not use it for a hiring subsidy paid by another body: only the rate reduction granted by Social Security goes here.

Where to find it?

Payroll › Prepare › Worker files › open the file › Work tab › Social Security incentives section.

To view or add: on the file, ⋮ › Social security incentives. On New, the Worker comes from the file and Contract version suggests their version.

Before you start

• Your profile is Payroll Administrator.
• You have the Social Security decision, with the measure, the period and the reference.
• The Usual Work Location on the file is filled in. Without it, Save is disabled.

How to use it

1. In the Work tab, in Social Security incentives, click Add a line.
2. In Measure, choose First job (young people looking for their first job), Long-term unemployed, Very-long-term unemployed or Inmates in open regime. Employer rate reduction (%) is filled in automatically.
3. Fill in Starts on, Ends on and Grant reference, and click Save. The incentive is recorded, but does not apply yet.
4. When you confirm that the contributory situation is in order, click the line, tick Contributory situation confirmed and fill in Confirmed on. Save.
5. On the month's payslip, click Calculate. Open the Social security and income tax tab and check Employer contribution, Applied Social Security incentive and How was it calculated?.

Example. An employee with a Social Security base of 2,400.00 €, with the first job incentive since 01/11/2026:

	Company rate	Company contribution	Employee contribution
Without incentive, or without confirmation	23.75 %	570.00 €	264.00 €
With confirmed incentive	11.88 %	285.12 €	264.00 €

Expected result

• The incentive line stays on the contract, with the reduction.
• While it is not confirmed, How was it calculated? says: “The incentive … was not applied: the contributory situation was not confirmed (art. 59.º).”
• Once confirmed, the payslip shows the reduced rate and the grant used.

Important notes

Measure	Reduction of the company rate	Maximum duration
First job	50 %	5 years
Long-term unemployed	50 %	3 years
Very-long-term unemployed	Exemption	3 years
Inmates in open regime, open-ended contract	Exemption	3 years
Inmates in open regime, fixed-term contract	50 %	No maximum recorded

Source: fiscaldoo legal parameters, with a start date of 01/01/2026, which cite the 2026 Practical Guide of the Social Security Institute (ISS) and the Contributory Schemes Code (CRC), arts. 56.º to 59.º. They are in Payroll › Configure › Law and calendars › Legal parameters. The text of these documents was not re-read for this article.

• They do not add up. With two incentives in force, the most favourable one applies. The other appears in How was it calculated?: “… was not applied: incentives do not accumulate: the most favourable applies (art. 58.º).”
• Rounding. Half of 23.75 % is 11.875 %, and fiscaldoo uses 11.88 %.
• Application. fiscaldoo does not send the application to Social Security: it records what Social Security granted.
• Incentive starting in a month already closed. The Social Security decision may arrive with the month already closed, and the start date may be in the past, on the line in the file and in Social security incentives › New. Closed payslips do not change, and the file warns, listing the months: “The incentive starts in a month that is already closed: the payslips of August 2026, September 2026 do not change. What is missing: the corrective payslip for those months, which applies the incentive. How to fix it: open each closed payslip and use “Create corrective”.” The button is in Actions › Create corrective, on the payslip.
• For now, the corrective does not settle the month by itself. Despite what the warning says, it opens in Draft, with no lines, and the reduced rate only applies to the lines you add. fiscaldoo does not calculate or suggest the contribution difference for those months. For example, a closed September payslip with 391.88 € of company contribution stays as it was; a corrective with a line of 1.00 € gives 0.12 € of Employer contribution, and How was it calculated? cites the incentive and the 11.88 %. Actions › Recalculate what changed and Rectify › Prepare the corrective give the same message: “Nothing changed since this payslip was closed. What happened: the contract, the schedule and the presences of the period are as they were. How to fix it: nothing to do; to pay something else create a corrective payslip by hand.” The sentence does not look at the incentive: it does not mean the month's contribution is right. Pending validation by a certified accountant: which lines to put on the corrective to settle the contribution for months already closed, and how to declare that correction to Social Security.

Pending validation by a certified accountant: the percentages and durations in the table; the rounding of the rate; the rule for an incentive that ends mid-month; and the inmates measure with a fixed-term contract, with no maximum duration recorded.

Common problems

On saving: “cannot last more than 5 years”

• Message: “The incentive “First job (young people looking for their first job)” of … cannot last more than 5 years (Guia Prático ISS 2026, “Iniciativas para estimular o emprego” and “Iniciativas para reintegrar presos” (CRC arts. 57.º a 59.º)). What happened: the measure has a legal maximum period. How to fix it: end it on or before the 31/10/2031.”
• What to do: correct Ends on with the date of the decision, within the maximum.

On saving: “has already started and its measure, start and grant reference cannot be changed”

• Message: “The incentive of … has already started and its measure, start and grant reference cannot be changed. What happened: an incentive that applied to a period is never rewritten. How to fix it: end it (change “Ends on” to today or later) and register a new one.”
• Cause: you changed one of these fields on an incentive whose start is already in the past, also when you have just recorded it with a past date. Check them before saving.
• What to do: click Close and discard the change. Ends on and the confirmation of the contributory situation can still be changed.

On saving: “Some required fields are empty”

• Cause: Ends on, Grant reference or, with the situation confirmed, Confirmed on is missing. The fields turn red.
• What to do: fill in what is missing.

The payslip still has the normal rate

• Cause: the contributory situation is not confirmed, or the incentive was not yet in force on the first day of the payslip's month.
• What to do: read How was it calculated?, correct what it points out and click Calculate again.