Non-habitual resident status

Obtaining Non-Habitual Resident Status (NHR) and Tax Optimization

Non-habitual resident status (NHR)

Administrative paperwork is often laborious to complete, and even more so if you do not speak the local language properly. Our counselors, multilingual, can do it for you. You will not have to wait for hours in the queue of an administrative establishment or fill out a tedious form.

What is NHR status?

The investment tax code approved by Legislative Decree 249/2009 of 23 September created the non-habitual resident’s tax regime to encourage the transfer to Portugal of non-resident professional experts with income from high value-added activities, as well as recipients of pensions received abroad.

eligibility

The citizen must fulfill the following conditions:

  • To be considered, in the fiscal sense, reside in Portuguese territory, the year in which the citizen intends that starts taxation as non-habitual resident.
  • Not to have been considered resident in Portuguese territory in the five years preceding the application for taxation as a habitual resident.

advantages

Non-habitual residents obtain the right to benefit from taxation of foreign-source income, with exemption from taxation in Portugal and possible double exemption, for a period of 10 consecutive years from the year of its registration as reside in Portuguese territory.

Concretely, to be considered as a non-habitual resident in Portugal, you must have stayed for at least 183 days in the country or have, on 31 December, a home that you have declared as your usual place of residence in the country. You will thus be exempt from personal income tax for a period of ten years. Non-habitual residents are thus entitled to an exemption from income tax collected abroad. Moreover, this status allows for a 20% flat rate on taxes resulting from wages and the provision of services in Portugal.