In Portugal, is Residency & Tax Residency The Same Thing?

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Written by: | Last updated on February 29, 2024 | Est. Reading Time: 2 minutes

Moving to another country (like Portugal) often means familiarising yourself with a lot of terms – terms that probably apply to where you’re living right now, but you may not have thought about. What’s the difference between a citizen and a resident, for example? And does being a resident automatically mean that you’re a tax resident as well?

The answer varies from country to country, but according to Paula Santos from Tax Team Consulting, in the case of Portugal, there’s a difference between residency and tax residency.

“They’re separate. Obtaining residency is one thing (e.g. a certificate from the local council for EU or residency through AIMA for non-EU). After you have residency, you can register for fiscal residency with the tax authority.”

In practice, this means that even though you might have obtained residency in Portugal (through AIMA or through your local câmara municipal, depending on where you hold citizenship), you will also need to organise your fiscal residency as well.

Tax residency is a complicated issue and, as Santos points out, just because you’re becoming a resident of Portugal that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re automatically going to be a tax resident and paying Portuguese taxes as well. Due to how complex a topic this is, it’s absolutely recommended that you speak to an accountant, such as Paula Santos, to discuss your individual situation.

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James Cave is the founder of Portugalist and the author of the bestselling book, Moving to Portugal Made Simple. He has visited just about every part of Portugal, including Madeira and all nine islands of the Azores, and lived in several parts of Portugal including Lisbon, the Algarve, and Northern Portugal.

You can contact James by emailing james@portugalist.com or via the site's contact form. This article includes contributions from Paula Santos, an accountant at Tax Team Consulting.