Ricardo drives for Uber and Bolt. He got the certificate, opened activity and started driving. What nobody explained is that the tax side of TVDE changes a lot depending on whether you drive for a fleet or set up your own operator - and that the platform’s commission hides a VAT cost that shows up even when you’re exempt, but that lands on whoever is the operator, not on every driver.
First: who is the “operator”?
TVDE has two roles. The operator - who holds the licence, deals with Uber/Bolt and receives the rides - must be a company (a legal person) under Lei n.º 45/2018. Lei n.º 59/2026 (in force since 1 September 2026) updated other aspects of the TVDE regime (see below), so check the current operational details; the tax treatment (VAT/IRS) described here is unchanged. The driver needs the driver certificate, must be linked to a licensed operator (registered on the platform) and, under Lei n.º 59/2026, a written contract with that operator.
So you effectively have two routes:
- You drive for a fleet that’s already licensed - on green receipts, your client is the (Portuguese) fleet, whom you invoice.
- You set up your own company (a legal person, typically single-member) - then it’s the company that is the operator and invoices Uber/Bolt; you become its director, no longer an independent issuing green receipts for the rides.
This decides who bears the VAT on the commission (below).
The certificate you actually need
What’s yours, as a driver, is the TVDE driver certificate (issued by the IMT, art. 10.º of Lei 45/2018): a category-B licence held for over 3 years with group 2, a 50-hour course, a criminal-record certificate, and it’s valid for 5 years. The operator licence belongs to the company, not to you. On top of the certificate, Lei n.º 59/2026 requires you to be linked to a licensed operator on the platform and to have a written contract with them.
Two scenarios, two sets of numbers - don’t mix them
What applies to you depends on the route you take. The most common mistake is mixing the two.
Scenario A: you drive for a fleet (on green receipts)
The fleet is the operator - it’s the one on Uber/Bolt, receiving the rides and being charged the commission by the platform. You provide a service to the fleet and invoice it.
Your code and coefficient:
In scenario A, what you invoice the fleet is a driver service - you open under the residual 1519 code (“other service providers”). CAE 49330 (“on-demand passenger transport in a vehicle with driver” - until 2025 it was 49320) belongs to the operator company, which is the one providing the transport, not to a driver who drives for a fleet.
The 1519 simplified-regime coefficient is 0.35 - 35% of what you invoice goes into your IRS. (Contrary to what you sometimes hear, 1519 doesn’t push you to 0.75: being a residual code, the AT applies 0.35 to it, as it set out in PIV 14810.) What changes next isn’t the IRS - it’s the VAT.
VAT in scenario A: here’s the detail that trips people up. The reduced 6% rate (item 2.14 of List I of the CIVA) is for passenger transport - and, in law, the one providing it is the licensed operator (the fleet), not you. What you invoice the fleet is a driver service, taxed at the general 23% rate. Don’t count on 6% just because you drive your own car: PIV 28042 concerns transport supplied by the TVDE operator - for your invoice to the fleet to count as transport at 6% you’d need specific confirmation from the AT.
Putting your own car into the activity is no longer trivial: under Lei n.º 59/2026 (in force since 1 September 2026), lending a vehicle (comodato) became, as a rule, prohibited - the exception is an owner-driver lending the car to the operator under an exclusive comodato, driven in the activity by the owner alone, with car, driver and operator named and linked in the IMT register and the platform. The licence always belongs to the operator; check the current rules before counting on your own vehicle.
If your turnover in Portuguese territory doesn’t exceed €15,000, you can use the art. 53.º exemption and charge no VAT at all. (The transport itself is 6% on the mainland, lower in Madeira and the Azores - but that’s the operator’s bill; see the VAT rates.)
The Uber/Bolt commission isn’t your problem (in scenario A): whoever is invoiced for the commission is the fleet (the operator on the platform), and it’s the fleet that self-assesses the 23% VAT on it - not you.
Scenario B: you set up your own company (operator)
A TVDE operator must be a legal person (Lei 45/2018) - typically a single-member company. Then it’s the company that is the operator: it contracts with Uber/Bolt, provides the passenger transport (at 6%, item 2.14) and receives the rides. You become its director, no longer an independent issuing green receipts for the rides.
- The Uber/Bolt commission (Uber in the Netherlands, Bolt in Estonia) is invoiced to your company, which self-assesses 23% VAT on it in Portugal (arts. 2.º and 6.º of the CIVA) - with no minimum threshold and no deduction if the company is exempt. It requires registering for intra-EU operations (VIES) and filing a periodic VAT return.
- Company taxes: the result is taxed at the company (IRC + organised accounting, with a certified accountant), not under your personal simplified regime. You’re taxed on what the company pays you as director.
Social Security and regime (scenario A)
As an independent on green receipts, you pay 21.4% on 70% of your service income (each month’s base = 1/3 of the quarter’s relevant income). In the first year of activity, for first-timers, there’s a 12-month contribution exemption.
But the point that weighs most is another. A driver’s real costs - fuel, wear, insurance and maintenance - can exceed the 65% the 0.35 coefficient presumes as expenses. When that happens, the simplified regime can make you pay tax on profit you don’t have.
Careful: don’t mix the scenarios. In scenario A your service to the fleet is a driver service (23%, or exempt under art. 53.º) - the 6% transport rate is the operator’s, not yours. The 23% self-assessment on the Uber/Bolt commission belongs to whoever is the operator (the fleet, or your company in scenario B) and is unavoidable, even under art. 53.º - it’s the cost most often forgotten.
✅ In summary
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The operator must be a legal person (Lei 45/2018): either you drive for a fleet on green receipts (your client), or you set up your own company (which becomes the operator). The driver certificate (IMT) is always yours.
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Don’t mix the two scenarios. The 6% (item 2.14) is for passenger transport supplied by the operator; your driver service to the fleet is 23% (or exempt under art. 53.º). The 23% self-assessment on the Uber/Bolt commission belongs to whoever is the operator (the fleet, or your company) - not to a driver who drives for a fleet. Your driver code is the residual 1519 (IRS coefficient 0.35, not 0.75); the transport CAE 49330 belongs to the operator company.
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With FIZ - if you drive for a fleet (green receipts), you issue receipts at the right rate and your VAT and Social Security are calculated and filed for you; if you run your own company (operator), FIZ handles invoicing, accounting and exports for your accountant. Either way you see what’s really left. See the plans.
