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This paper tackles the polemic topic of financing a Universal Basic Income (UBI) in Portugal. Against the catastrophist scenarios that argue that such a public policy is either completely utopian, or would entail the ultimate destruction of the Welfare State, the paper analyses what it would take to finance a UBI in Portugal. In order to do so, it looks at three different scenarios: 1) the implementation of a modest income (100 euros per month), whose impact would be akin to a small social dividend such as the ones existing in Alaska or Macau; 2) an intermediate income of 200 euros per month; 3) a full basic income, above subsistence level, set at 450 euros per month. It concludes that while the implementation of a full basic income would require a significant restructuration of the Portuguese fiscal framework the modest partial income analyzed in 1) could be feasible in Portugal with a restructuration of Social Security spending and a more progressive IRS combined with a hike in VAT rates, provided there would be political support for these changes. The paper thus embraces a gradual approach towards the implementation of UBI, also mentioning the possibility that this implementation would take place at a European level.
