Tourist Tax in Madeira: Why There Is No Central Payment System — and What Every Alojamento Local Host Needs to Know

Published by EazyAL | Alojamento Local Compliance & Management

The Key Thing Most Hosts Get Wrong About Tourist Tax in Madeira

If you manage an Alojamento Local (AL) property in Madeira, you might assume there's one central place to register, collect, and declare tourist tax for the whole island. There isn't. And that's exactly where many hosts get caught out.

In Madeira — just like across the rest of Portugal — each local municipality has the authority to decide whether to implement the tourist tax, define the specific amount, the number of nights it applies to, and any potential exemptions. There is no island-wide tourist tax system, no single portal, and no unified payment process. Every câmara runs its own platform, its own rules, and its own deadlines.

For Alojamento Local hosts managing properties across multiple municipalities in Madeira, this creates a very real and very fragmented compliance challenge.

Which Municipalities in Madeira Charge Tourist Tax?

The rollout of the taxa turística in Madeira has happened gradually, municipality by municipality. Seven of Madeira's 11 municipalities currently charge two euros per night, for a maximum of seven nights — Funchal, Santa Cruz, Santana, Ponta do Sol, Machico, Ribeira Brava and Calheta — while Câmara de Lobos, São Vicente and Porto Santo planned to introduce their own versions in 2025. Porto Moniz remains the only municipality in Madeira with no current plans to apply the tax.

Here's a breakdown of each municipality relevant to most AL hosts, along with where to pay:

🏙️ Funchal

Rate: €2 per person, per night (max. 7 nights)
Live since: October 1, 2024
Exemptions: Residents of the Autonomous Region of Madeira, children 12 and under, guests with a disability of 60% or more
Where to declare: www.funchal.pt

Funchal also collects a Tourist Tax for Arrival by Sea of €2 per passenger disembarking from a cruise ship in transit, which came into force on January 1, 2025. Hosts collecting the overnight tax also receive a handling fee of 2.5% of the amounts charged, plus VAT.

🏖️ Santa Cruz (incl. Caniço)

Rate: €2 per person, per night (max. 7 nights)
Known as: "EcoTaxa"
One of the first municipalities in Madeira to introduce the tourist tax
Where to declare: santacruzonline.cm-santacruz.pt

Santa Cruz has its own dedicated online submission portal for the EcoTaxa — hosts must register and file returns directly through this platform. It is completely separate from any other municipality's system.

🎣 Câmara de Lobos

Rate: €2 per person, per night (max. 7 nights)
Live since: January 1, 2025
Where to declare: taxaturistica.cm-camaradelobos.pt

Câmara de Lobos created a dedicated tourist tax platform to facilitate management for accommodation operators, where hosts can find all necessary information, complete forms, and submit declarations online. This is an entirely separate system from Funchal or Santa Cruz.

🌿 Calheta (incl. Paul do Mar, Jardim do Mar)

Rate: €2 per person, per night (max. 7 nights)
Where to declare: www.cmcalheta.pt

Paul do Mar and Jardim do Mar are parishes (freguesias) within the Municipality of Calheta, so all tourist tax declarations for properties in these areas are submitted through the Calheta câmara website — not through a separate portal.

⚓ Machico

Rate: €2 per person, per night (max. 7 nights)
Where to declare: www.cm-machico.pt

Machico was among the earlier adopters of the tourist tax in Madeira. Declarations are submitted directly through the municipality's own website and services.

There Is No Central Tourist Tax Portal for Madeira — Here's Why That Matters

This is the critical point that catches out many Alojamento Local hosts in Madeira, particularly those managing properties in more than one municipality.

If you have one property in Funchal and another in Caniço (Santa Cruz), you are dealing with two completely separate systems, two different declaration portals, two sets of deadlines, and potentially two different rules on exemptions and filing periods. Add a third property in Câmara de Lobos or Calheta, and that's three more platforms to manage.

Unlike SIBA guest registration or INE IPHH submissions — where there is at least a single national framework — the tourist tax in Madeira is entirely decentralised. Each câmara municipal sets its own rules, manages its own platform, and determines its own declaration frequency. There is no AMRAM (Association of Municipalities of Madeira) portal where you can submit for all municipalities at once. There is no regional government portal that consolidates it. Every submission goes directly to the local câmara — and only to them.

For busy hosts, this administrative fragmentation means:

• Tracking multiple logins and portals

• Remembering different submission deadlines per municipality

• Keeping separate records for each câmara

• Risking non-compliance if one municipality is missed

How EazyAL Helps Alojamento Local Hosts Stay on Top of Tourist Tax in Madeira

EazyAL is built specifically for Alojamento Local hosts in Portugal, and we understand this fragmented landscape better than anyone. While EazyAL cannot submit tourist tax declarations on your behalf to each câmara's individual portal, it helps you stay organised and compliant at every step.

With EazyAL, you can:

• Collect guest data automatically during online check-in — including the information needed to calculate tourist tax correctly per stay

• Track nights and guest numbers across all your AL units, so you always have accurate figures ready for each municipal declaration

• Manage multiple properties across different municipalities from one dashboard, eliminating the risk of missing a filing deadline

• Combine tourist tax tracking with SIBA guest registration and INE IPHH reporting — all in one place, instead of juggling separate tools for each obligation

The declarations themselves still go to each individual câmara. But with EazyAL, you arrive at that step with the right numbers, the right records, and the confidence that nothing has been missed.

Quick Reference: Tourist Tax Portals by Municipality in Madeira

Final Thoughts

Managing tourist tax compliance across Madeira's municipalities is one of the more overlooked challenges for Alojamento Local hosts — not because the tax itself is complex, but because the lack of a central system means every property in every municipality requires its own process.

Staying compliant means knowing your municipality, knowing your portal, and keeping accurate records of every stay. EazyAL is here to make sure that second part is always taken care of.

👉 Start for free at EazyAL.com — no credit card required, no commissions, no obligations.

Tags: tourist tax Madeira, taxa turística Madeira, Alojamento Local Madeira, tourist tax Funchal, EcoTaxa Santa Cruz, Câmara de Lobos tourist tax, Calheta tourist tax, Machico tourist tax, AL compliance Portugal, EazyAL