Sintra Tourist Tax 2026: The Complete Guide for Alojamento Local Hosts
If you run an Alojamento Local in Sintra, the municipal tourist tax is one of the easiest obligations to misunderstand — and one of the most common sources of fines. The rule looks simple on paper: €2 per guest per night, capped at 3 nights. In practice, mistakes happen on long stays, month-end check-outs, and bookings that mix children and adults.
This guide explains exactly how the Sintra tourist tax works in 2026, who is exempt, how to register on the official municipal platform, how to pay via Multibanco, and how EazyAL now calculates and tracks it for you — so you spend less time on spreadsheets and more time hosting.
Sintra Tourist Tax: The Quick Answer
The Sintra municipal tourist tax (taxa municipal turística de dormida) in 2026 is:
€2 per guest, per night
Capped at 3 nights per stay
Maximum €6 per guest per stay
Charged only to guests aged 13 and over (the birthday itself is excluded)
Collected by the host (you) and paid monthly to the Câmara Municipal de Sintra
The current €2 rate has been in force since 29 March 2023, when the municipality revised its original 2019 regulation [EXTERNAL LINK: cm-sintra.pt official Taxa-Turística page].
Who Must Collect the Sintra Tourist Tax?
Under Sintra's regulation, the obligation falls on the operator — not the booking platform. That means you are responsible whether you list on:
Airbnb
Booking.com
Vrbo
A direct-booking website
Or take reservations offline
If your property is a registered Alojamento Local in the Sintra municipality (Sintra, Cascais–Estoril border zones, Colares, São João das Lampas, Queluz, Algueirão, and surrounding parishes), the tax applies. This sits alongside your other compliance duties — RNAL registration, SIBA guest reporting, invoicing, and INE statistics.
How to Register on the Sintra Tourist Tax Platform
Before you can submit declarations, you need an account on the municipality's dedicated portal: taxaturistica.sintra.pt.
Step-by-step registration
Visit taxaturistica.sintra.pt and request access.
Submit your RNAL number, property details, and NIF (taxpayer number).
The Câmara verifies your AL registration.
You receive login credentials by email — usually within a few working days.
Log in and confirm each property unit you operate.
Once active, you can either submit declarations directly on the portal or via integrated software such as EazyAL, which connects to iTaxas — the technical backbone used by Sintra and several other Portuguese municipalities. iTaxas documentation.
How to Pay the Sintra Tourist Tax (Multibanco)
After submitting your monthly declaration, the municipality issues a Multibanco payment reference containing:
Entity number (Entidade)
Reference number (Referência)
Amount due (Montante)
You pay via any Multibanco ATM or your online banking under "Pagamentos de serviços" (service payments). Payment is typically due in the month following the reported stays.
How to Count Nights Correctly (the #1 Mistake)
Nights are calculated as: departure date minus arrival date. The day of departure is not an overnight stay.
Example:
A guest arrives 29 December and leaves 2 January → 4 nights (29, 30, 31 Dec + 1 Jan).
What happens after 3 nights?
The tax stops at the third night, no matter how long the guest stays.
Stay length | Taxable nights | Tax per guest (13+) |
|---|---|---|
1 night | 1 | €2 |
2 nights | 2 | €4 |
3 nights | 3 | €6 |
7 nights | 3 | €6 |
14 nights | 3 | €6 |
This 3-night cap per stay is where manual spreadsheet calculations most commonly fail — especially when a single stay crosses month-end and hosts mistakenly reset the cap.
Who Is Exempt From the Sintra Tourist Tax?
Per the current municipal regulation, the following guests are exempt:
Guests under 13 years old (the day of the 13th birthday itself is excluded)
Guests whose stay is offered by the AL operator (no payment received)
Guests in Sintra for medical reasons — consultations, exams, treatments — plus one accompanying person, with documentation
Guests placed by the Câmara Municipal de Sintra or Segurança Social
A 2024 council resolution revoked a previous broader exemption, so it's worth checking the platform's current exemption list before declaring [EXTERNAL LINK: cm-sintra.pt revogação da isenção].
What Hosts Should Keep on Record
For each stay, store:
Guest full name
Arrival date
Departure date
Date of birth (to justify any under-13 exemption)
Number of taxable nights
Total tax collected
This evidence base also serves SIBA, INE, and your accountant — three audiences asking for overlapping data anyway.
Why Manual Tourist Tax Calculation Goes Wrong
The most frequent errors EazyAL sees in incoming host data:
Counting the departure day as an overnight
Charging beyond 3 nights
Charging children under 13
Resetting the 3-night cap when a stay crosses month-end (it does not reset)
Calculating per booking instead of per guest
Forgetting the host's own complimentary stays are exempt
Each of these can multiply across dozens of monthly bookings. Over a year, a host with 200 bookings can over- or under-collect hundreds of euros — and incorrect declarations are what trigger municipal audits.
How EazyAL Now Handles Sintra Tourist Tax
We have rebuilt the Tourist Tax workflow inside EazyAL to mirror exactly how Sintra (and other iTaxas municipalities) want the data reported.
Inside your dashboard you can now see, per property and per month:
Total guest-nights
Nights above the 3-night cap (auto-excluded)
Taxable nights
Exempt guests (under 13, complimentary, medical)
Total tax due for the month
A clean monthly export you can submit to the Sintra portal or push via iTaxas integration
This is especially helpful for hosts managing:
Long stays (digital nomads, monthly bookings)
Stays that cross month-end
Mixed-age groups (families with children)
Multiple properties under one operator
Sintra Tourist Tax in the Wider AL Compliance Picture
Tourist tax is one node in a larger compliance graph. A complete operational stack for a Sintra Alojamento Local typically includes:
Pre-arrival guest data collection (digital check-in form)
SIBA / AIMA foreign-guest reporting within 3 working days
RNAL maintenance and civil liability insurance
INE monthly tourism statistics
Municipal tourist tax monthly declaration and Multibanco payment
Invoicing through certified software
EazyAL connects all of these in a single flow, so the data you collect at check-in feeds SIBA, INE, and the Sintra tourist tax module without re-entry.
Learn more at EazyAL.
FAQ
What is the tourist tax in Sintra in 2026?
€2 per guest per night, capped at 3 nights, applied to guests aged 13 and over.
What is the maximum tourist tax per guest?
€6 per stay, regardless of stay length.
Does the tourist tax apply to Airbnb in Sintra?
Yes. The obligation is on the host/operator, not the platform. Airbnb, Booking.com, and direct-booking hosts all collect and remit it.
How do I calculate tourist tax for a 10-night stay?
Only the first 3 nights are taxable — so €6 per eligible guest.
Do children pay tourist tax in Sintra?
No. Guests under 13 are exempt. The day of the 13th birthday is also excluded.
Where do I register and submit declarations?
On the official Sintra portal: taxaturistica.sintra.pt.
How do I pay the Sintra tourist tax?
By Multibanco — entity, reference, and amount are issued after each monthly submission.
Final Note
A simple mental model for Sintra tourist tax compliance:
Count taxable guests (13+)
Count nights correctly (departure − arrival)
Stop at 3 nights per stay
Apply exemptions (children, medical, complimentary)
Keep clean monthly records
Do that — or let EazyAL do it automatically — and you stay out of the municipal audit pile.
