This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Read today's Portuguese stories delivered to your email municipalities set the Municipal Property Tax (IMI) rates to be charged the following year In 2025 most municipalities will charge the minimum rate (0.30%) The IMI rate to be applied in 2025 has already been announced by the vast majority of the 308 Portuguese municipalities According to data published on the Finance Portal there are 195 city halls that will apply the minimum rate of 0.3% The number of municipalities that apply the maximum IMI rate of 0.45% remains the same The good news is that there were 37 municipalities that decided to lower the IMI rate in 2025 with the biggest reductions being observed in Vila Nova de Poiares (from 0.45% to 0.39%) Elvas (from 0.4% to 0.35% in both cases) and Portalegre (from 0.34% to 0.3%) leaving the exceptional maximum rate of 0.5% allocated to municipalities covered by the local economy support program or the municipal adjustment program For this year the IMI rate in this Algarve municipality is now 0.45% only two municipalities advanced with increases in this municipal tax: Torre de Moncorvo which increased from 0.3% to 0.45%; and Évora This means that the vast majority of municipalities (a total of 258) chose to keep their IMI rates unchanged Each municipality can choose to reduce the IMI for families according to the number of dependents (one child has a discount of 30 euros two are equivalent to 70 euros and three are equivalent to 140 euros) The IMI rate applied to rural properties continues to be 0.8% in all municipalities in the country We appreciate that not everyone can afford to pay for our services but if you are able to we ask you to support The Portugal News by making a contribution – no matter how small You can change how much you give or cancel your contributions at any time Send us your comments or opinion on this article Reaching over 400,000 people a week with news about Portugal Fire Aviation A pilot died Friday in the crash of an air tanker in Northeast Portugal In a message on his official Twitter account Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa said “It was with great dismay that I became aware of the death of the pilot who operated an aircraft that crashed this afternoon….I send my deepest condolences to family and friends.” The Air Tractor AT-802AF Fire Boss went down near the town of Torre de Moncorvo after scooping water on the Douro river The pilot was the only person on board the single engine air tanker that had departed from Viseu-Gonçalves Lobato Airport (VSE/LPVZ) Photos show that the aircraft was severely damaged mayor of the town of Foz Coa where the incident took place told Lusa news agency the pilot was pronounced dead at the scene The aircraft was operated by Titan Aerial Firefighting which has offices in Spain The company announced on Saturday that the pilot was André Serra friends and colleagues say goodbye to you,” they wrote “We offer our deepest condolences to the relatives of André a great professional and better person who has left us too soon Our sincere condolences go out to the family Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Gerald Typos, let us know, and please keep in mind the commenting ground rules before you post a comment Raging wildfires have swept across parts of Portugal in recent days and forcing thousands of people to evacuate On Saturday, according to Portugal’s Health Ministry, Marta Temido, 659 mainly elderly people had died of heat-related deaths, Reuters reported while more than 60 people were injured.  Portugal has experienced an average high temperatures of 47 degrees Celsius (117 Fahrenheit) last week as firefighters are battling blazes across the country 79 fires had been recorded in mainland Portugal mainly in the country’s northern and center regions as reported by the Portuguese National Authority for Emergency and Civil Protection almost the entire country remained on high alert for wildfires Fires have been raging for more than a week.  The area destroyed this year has already exceeded the total for 2021 More than 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of land has been burned Authorities are anxious to avoid a repeat 2017 In addition to the heat-related fatalities a pilot of a firefighting plane died on Friday when his plane crashed while on an operation in northern Portugal while trying to drive away from wildfires in northern Portugal The bodies were found inside a burnt-out car after the couple tried to flee a wildfire in the municipality of Murça in northern Portugal due to high temperatures gripping throughout the European continent in recent weeks have declared states of emergency or issued red alerts More than 1,000 people were reported dead in southern Europe alone where temperatures dropped over the weekend according to the Portuguese Institute of Meteorology  (IPMA) One third of the mainland still remains at extreme risk of fire according to the national meteorological office As the deadly heat wave is breaking temperature records the European Union has urged member states to prepare for more wildfires this summer as the continent faces an extreme weather shift that scientists say is being triggered by climate change Scientists blaming the wildfires to climate change predict more frequent and intense episodes of extreme weather in the future since climate change will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive PAJ/Staff/This developing story will be updated the Portuguese-American Journal (PAJ) is an interactive news blog dedicated to the Portuguese-American heritage with the purpose of informing and offering an insight into the Portuguese-American experience All issues, printed and digital, are archived in the Library of Congress @ https://www.loc.gov/item/94648842/ The Portuguese American Journal is ranked by GoogleNews. PAJ honors freedom of speech but does not allow for defamatory or abusive language including intimidation including falsehoods and/or disinformation **Report a correction or typo to editor@portuguese-american-journal.com We are committed to upholding our journalistic standards LISBON (Reuters) – A pilot died on Friday when his waterbomber aircraft crashed as it fought a wildfire raging in the northern Portuguese municipality of Torre de Moncorvo Civil Protection Authority commander Andre Fernandes said there was only a pilot on board the Fire Boss aircraft and emergency services rushed to the scene of the crash at around 8 p.m is one of nine blazes sweeping across drought-hit Portugal which has been battling a heat wave since the beginning of the week “It was with great dismay that I learned about the death of the pilot who operated an aircraft that crashed…I send my deepest condolences to family and friends,” Prime Minister Antonio Costa wrote on Twitter Powered by PageSuite