Gibraltar Insight March 2020 – Portugal, what is the buzz all about?

Gibraltar Insight – March 2020

the attractions of Portugal as a place to live and invest have increased dramatically over the last few years. Portugal offers two great attractions to new residents: the non-habitual resident (NHR) scheme and the so-called ‘golden visa’. for EU citizens the golden visa is less important because they already have a right to live in Portugal without formal immigration and investment. for them the driver is NHR status, which has attracted many new residents from UK, Scandinavia and France in particular.

The NHR scheme is badly named. To qualify as a ‘non-habitual’ resident, an applicant must actually intend to be ‘habitually’ resident in Portugal – so the name is an oxymoron. To be resident in Portugal you must spend at least 183 days per year in Portugal or have a permanent home there.

If you have a home available to you in Portugal, you may be considered tax resident but this is not necessarily the case. If you are generally tax resident in another jurisdiction and spend most of your time there, you will not generally be tax resident in Portugal. You would therefore have no tax obligations in Portugal and would not need to apply for a special tax status.

Read the full article here.