Portugal defers the qualified electronic signature requirement again — now 1 January 2027
Portugal's qualified electronic signature (QES) obligation for invoices is postponed through 31 December 2026, the latest in a series of deferrals. Until then PDF invoices keep the same legal standing as paper. The 2026 draft State Budget sets the requirement to take effect 1 January 2027, from which point B2B and B2C PDFs will need a QES unless the issuer moves to an accepted structured format such as CIUS-PT or an approved EDI arrangement. Everything else in the Portuguese regime already applies: invoices must come from AT-certified software and carry the ATCUD unique document code (mandatory since 1 January 2023) and a QR code, with data reported via SAF-T. Businesses that have deferred work on the strength of previous postponements should treat structured invoicing, not signature tooling, as the durable answer.