European Commission prolongs Madeira's IBC Regime until 2023

The European Commission has recently announced that several State Aid regimes, some of which would otherwise expire at the end of 2020, will be extended with a view of mitigating the negative financial and economic impacts of COVID-19.

Amongst these are the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) in which the IBC of Madeira is included and which has been extended until the end of 2023.

This is on the basis that the Commission has concluded that in such turbulent times it is easier to extend the current law rather than incur the disruption of potentially significant changes at the end of this year, when many exemptions were otherwise due to expire.

According to the EC, this is "In order to provide predictability and legal certainty, whilst preparing for a possible future update of the State aid rules (...)".

The extension of the preferential tax regime of the IBC of Madeira must now be reflected in the internal Portuguese legislation, namely through the amendment of the Statute of Fiscal Benefits by the Portuguese Government.