The European Commission sent a ‘reasoned opinion’ to Portugal’s government, stating that the Lisbon tourist tax is unfair as it only taxes foreigners and not inbound residents – it must be adjusted accordingly and apply to all travellers.
Far from this causing an outbreak of anti-Brussels grumpiness, the opinion is pretty much irrelevant as it turns out that airports operator ANA has been paying the per head fee to Lisbon council but not bothering to collect the tax from travellers using the airport.
Brussels has given a period of two months for the airport tax also to apply to residents but all that will happen is that ANA will stop sending its entirely voluntary payment to Lisbon Council - end of problem.
The Council is deleting the planned income 2019 airport tax from its budget and Brussels can stop worrying that the tax, that was never collected, was discriminatory.
Approved in 2014, the Municipal Tourist Tax of €1 per night successfully has been collected from Lisbon's accommodation sector but the tax due to be collected at Lisbon's points of entry, the airport and the cruiser quayside, has never been charged as this was viewed by ANA as far too complicated to collect and might annoy travellers.
In 2015, ANA generously stepped in and said it would pay the tax, rather than letting the Council get involved but with the boom in tourism, ANA decided it no longer wanted to stump up a tax that it finds impossible to collect.
