Sovereign-Consultoria Lda has become aware of a body of opinion that is recommending that Portuguese property holding companies should ensure that their Directors/Managers and Company Secretary are based in non-‘blacklisted’ jurisdictions in order to avoid the company itself being considered as blacklisted by the Portuguese tax authority and therefore liable to aggravated rates of taxation.
The reasoning behind this opinion is that with the creation of a Register of Effective Beneficial Ownership in respect of any foreign company having an activity in Portugal, the tax authority will now be able to ‘see’ from where the company is managed and controlled by its officers.
Whilst we agree that the details shown on the register will provide such information and that unexpected applications of the law do sometimes occur in Portugal, we do not subscribe to this view because we do not feel it to be justified under existing Portuguese law.
Whilst the law does contain the concept that any company may be also considered as taxable in Portugal if it is managed and controlled from Portugal, we do not accept that a foreign company might be considered as blacklisted simply due to the location of its management and control. In our view, under existing Portuguese law this is determined by the location of its corporate registration and its registered office.
For more information on Portuguese property holding companies, please contact the Portugal office
