A student on green receipts: Social Security, IRS and your parents' dependant status

Rita is in her second year at university and has started doing some paid design work. The client asks for an invoice. She opens an activity, issues her first green receipt - and only then wonders: “is this going to mess up my parents’ IRS? Do I have to pay Social Security? Do I stop being a dependant?”.

They’re the right questions, and the answer changes with how much she earns in the year. Let’s take it step by step.

Yes, a student can issue green receipts

A student who is of age can open an activity as a self-employed worker like anyone else. If you’re a minor it’s also possible, but with limits: under 16, only once you’ve completed compulsory schooling and only for light work (simple, defined tasks), under the autonomous-work-by-minors rule in Law 7/2009 (art. 3.º), which applies the Labour Code’s “light work” limits; and, in any case, you need your legal representative. In opening an activity, you take on the same obligations - and a few early reliefs.

In Social Security: the first-year relief

Like any freelancer opening an activity for the first time, a student gets a first-year cushion: enrolment in Social Security only takes effect on the 1st day of the 12th month after the activity starts. Until then, you pay no contributions and you don’t have to file the quarterly declaration either. If you’d like to start contributing sooner - to build up pension time, say - you can request it when filing the quarterly declaration and choose to start contributing that quarter.

After that year, the normal rules kick in: the contribution is 21.4% on the relevant income - as a rule 70% of services (sales of goods count 20%). For someone invoicing little while studying, the amounts tend to be modest, but they now exist.

In IRS: the simplified regime (and where you declare)

With category B income (self-employment), the student sits, in principle, in the simplified regime: tax falls on 75% of what they invoiced (the 0.75 coefficient, for the professions listed in art. 151.º; other services use 0.35 and the sale of goods 0.15 - art. 31.º of the CIRS). The difference is an allowance the law assumes for expenses - with the 0.75 and 0.35 coefficients, above certain amounts part of it has to be justified with real expenses. Where you declare this income depends on whether you stay a dependant of your parents - that’s the next point.

And there’s good news for someone who is no longer a dependant and starting out: IRS Jovem (the youth IRS scheme) can exempt a good chunk of this income in the first years of a career - but note, it requires not being considered a dependant of your parents (art. 12.º-B). The conditions and percentages change often; confirm the regime in force before you decide.

The point that affects the parents: are you still a dependant?

Here’s the part that catches families off guard. In IRS, a child only remains a dependant of their parents if, at the same time (art. 13.º of the CIRS):

• they are 25 or under; and
• they don’t earn, in the year, more than 14 times the minimum wage (the art. 13.º CIRS limit - €12,880 in 2026, i.e. 14 × €920).

What happens next depends on which side of that limit you land:

The 5 × IAS exclusion (dependent students only)

There’s a benefit tailored to this case: a dependent student’s income - both employment income (category A) and green-receipt services (category B) - is excluded from tax up to 5 × the IAS per year (in 2026, €2,685.65 = 5 × €537.13), provided school enrolment is confirmed on the Portal das Finanças by the end of February (art. 12.º n.º 9 of the CIRS). Only what exceeds that amount counts.

Example: Rita (invoices little)

Rita invoiced €3,000 in the year - below the limit. She can stay a dependant of her parents. And thanks to the 5 × IAS exclusion, most of her €3,000 isn’t even taxed - only the part above €2,685.65 counts. Even so, if she stays in the household, that part is added to her parents’ income in the family’s IRS. The parents have to do the maths: sometimes the dependant deduction pays off; other times it pays not to include her as a dependant - then she files her own IRS and, if she meets the conditions, can use IRS Jovem (which requires not being a dependant).

Example: João (invoices more)

João invoiced €15,000 - above the limit. Here there’s no choice: he stops being a dependant that year. He files his own IRS, and his parents lose the dependant deduction and the deductions linked to him (health, education). It’s not a punishment - it’s the natural consequence of having significant income of your own.

Warning: the classic mistake is parents keeping the child as a dependant “because it’s always been that way”, without noticing they’ve crossed the income limit - or without realising that, by keeping them, they have to aggregate the child’s income. Before submitting, run the maths on both options (dependant vs separate return). And remember: the first-year exemption is from Social Security, not IRS - the green receipts count for IRS all the same.

✅ In summary

1. A student can issue green receipts and gets the first-year Social Security relief (contributions only start on the 1st day of the 12th month after starting; no contributions or quarterly declaration until then); after that, 21.4% on the relevant income (as a rule 70% of services).

2. In IRS they enter the simplified regime (tax on 75% of invoicing, for the professions in art. 151.º). The critical point is dependant status (art. 13.º): 25 or under and below the income limit, they can stay a dependant (with aggregation into the household); above it, they stop being one and the parents lose the deduction. IRS Jovem only applies to those who are not dependants.

3. With FIZ the student issues the receipts and keeps everything organised for IRS and Social Security, without turning a bit of extra work into a tax puzzle. See the plans.