CEAL — the extraordinary AL contribution, and where it stands in 2026

What the Contribuição Extraordinária sobre o Alojamento Local was, how it was calculated, why it was revoked, and what AL owners should still check on their tax file today.

If you bought an AL property between 2023 and 2025, you probably heard the letters CEAL and braced for a new annual bill. Here is the short version of what happened and what still matters.

What CEAL was

The Contribuição Extraordinária sobre o Alojamento Local was introduced by the Mais Habitação housing package in 2023. It was a levy on apartments and hospedagem establishments operating as AL, designed to push short-term rental stock back into long-term housing.

The charge was built from:

the gross private area of the unit;
an "urban pressure" coefficient that varied by parish;
an economic coefficient linked to AL turnover per square metre.

Standalone houses (moradias) and properties in low-density interior areas were outside the scope, as were units in autonomous regions where the regional assembly did not adopt it.

Why it stopped

CEAL was revoked by Decree-Law 57/2024 of 10 September, which also scrapped the "vetustez" (building-age) coefficient applied to AL units. A separate diploma, Decree-Law 76/2024 of 23 October, then rolled back the remaining Mais Habitação AL measures — the new-registration freeze, the automatic expiry and reassessment of licences, and the condominium-consent rule. The two are often confused: 57/2024 is the tax repeal, 76/2024 is the licensing rollback. In practice, most owners never paid more than the initial cycle, and in some cases refunds were issued for amounts already settled.

What to check anyway in 2026

1. Old assessments. If you received a CEAL settlement note in the 2024 cycle and paid it, confirm with your accountant whether it fell inside the refunded scope.

2. The coefficient trap. CEAL is gone, but the higher IRS coefficient for AL in containment areas is a separate rule with its own life. Do not assume repeal of one means repeal of the other.

3. Municipal measures. Some councils responded to national repeal with their own local taxes, IMI surcharges or licence caps. Those are alive and are set locally.

4. Licence validity. The automatic-expiry rule was dropped, but registrations can still lapse for other reasons — non-operation, missing insurance, or municipal opposition. See cancelling or suspending an AL.

The practical takeaway

CEAL is no longer a running cost to budget for. The genuine recurring costs in 2026 are IRS on Category B income, IVA where applicable, IMI plus any municipal surcharge, mandatory insurance, and municipal tourist tax administration.

If you are modelling a purchase, plan against those — and check the parish, because the containment status of the address is now the biggest single variable in an AL business case.