Has anyone here successfully obtained their NHR 1.0 without having a physical address in Portugal? I am needing to apply for my NHR 1.0 in order to manage some shortcomings with my GV investment and understand that to apply, you must establish tax residency in Portugal with an Portuguese address.
Context: Like many others, I applied for my GV through a real estate project but have yet to receive a response from the SEF/AIMA. This was a reality I accepting going into the program as I do not have plans to move to Portugal full time for 5-10 years. Unfortunately, some issues with my investment have come up, and I may now need to permanently reside in PT at the time of renewal. As exciting as this would be to actually move to PT, I would need to have the NHR 1.0 to avoid tax problems with my business otherwise it would not be feasible and may not be able to complete the residency requirement for my ultimate goal of citizenship.
I suppose I could rent a room to meet the requirements, but Iâd prefer to avoid it due to the cost and the concerns of renting a flat I donât really need that would just sit empty for a year. I still do not have my first residency card so not legally stay long term if I wanted to.
That seems to be the case but hoping someone has found a workaround.
The issues are specific my project and all the investors have all been notified. Essentially there were not enough funds to cover the renovation costs, resulting in financing requirements that could cause issues at the time of renewal or citizenship application. Those issues could be solved by simply or not so simply moving to PT so am trying to get a plan in place with the NHR.
I have been told by various individuals in the legal profession that, if your card already has your lawyerâs address on it, thatâs sufficient to apply for NHR; you submit that as your proof and they just accept it. I donât know the truth of this. Of course at best this is a legal fiction and easily punched through if anyone looks really hard. The open question is whether anyone actually ever will⊠and what happens if they do.
âHey, you claim tax residency but your NHR application was based on a fiction so weâre yanking it, please cough up for all those years you claimed tax residency!â Of course, if you never actually moved and it was a legal fiction, then you can counter-argue that ok I didnât qualify for NHR because I had no legal residence, but oh wait youâre saying I wasnât a tax resident so I donât owe you anything at all". Of course if you move later on and are there full time enough to qualify⊠oopsie. Itâs a sticky wicket.
I am in a mildly similar boat at the moment. I purchased a property which was supposed to be done by the end of the year. It is supposedly done⊠but none of this accounted for the camara approvals⊠so I own an apartment I canât live in, and the odds it will be registered for occupancy by the end of the year are between slim and none and Slimâs headinâ for the door. I may just apply using the lawyerâs address and see if I get it or not - renting an apartment or the like isnât a reasonable option for me.
(Ya, ya, silly me, thinking anything in Portugal would get done on scheduleâŠ)
I can confirm this. We just got our NHR with the NIF address changed to our lawyerâs address at the back of the residence card. We were told (after weâd already rented an apartment) that a validation code sent by mail to the new address would be required to change it, so we wonât be doing that until we actually move to Portugal and can receive mail.
Huh. Iâve talked to two lawyers who both indicated that it wouldnât be a problem, and that itâs actually more difficult if you try to use an address that isnât on the card. But who knows?
Thanks for sharing the feedback on using a lawyers address on your residency card address, that seems like a reasonable workaround if you have a residency card. I am going to check if this is possible without a card.
My position is very much a legal fiction. I am still waiting on my residency card so I cannot legally reside in PT but need to in order to establish tax residency. It would be a hard argument to sell if I ever had issues.
I think we could all really use another extension to match up with Portuguese processing⊠Sorry about the timing on your camara approvals, that is brutal.
The other way would be to start a lease and have a couple of your neighbours confirm your residency at the local freguesia to get the Atestado de ResidĂȘncia. Then it is the same process.
You can legally live in Portugal whilst your case is being processed. I discussed this issue extensively in previous posts. I have been residing in Portugal for over two years without the card with no issues other than occasional travel inconveniences which are quickly resolved by presenting the paperwork from SEF/AIMA that confirms your pending application.
My NIF and Residence Card have my attorneyâs address on them, but when I go to apply for NHR I cannot as the address with the IRS is in the USA. It says that I need to go into the local office to change this. Was that an easy process? I would prefer to do this with bringing my lawyer in as they would not condone my switching my residence to Portugal if I do not live in Portugal
You can change the address yourself on the Financas portal if you have your user name and login. However you can only change your address with documentation that proves you have an address in Portugal. Documentation like this includes a property deed in your name, a legal lease (residential leases are registered with the tax authorities), a Certificate of Residence from the local council. A second step is that Financas will post a code to your Portuguese address and you have to confirm it to them in order to complete the address change.
Your lawyer, or better to use an accountant as they will be significantly cheaper and itâs not a difficult process (it cost me âŹ100 with my accountants), may not approve of you fabricating residency but they may be able to help you with a ghost lease as I was looking into in November last year. Now youâre in December 2024 though Iâd suggest that itâs all a bit too last-minute to execute all of this if youâre not a straightforward case.
I wrote about my PT tax address change experience last week here.
Iâm on Madeira, which being âautonomousâ likes to do their own thing, and doesnât use Finanças E-balcĂŁo. Instead they prefer a long queue of people snaking up 2 flights of stairs to a crowded room with about 5 counters. But at least there you can argue with actual people
This makes complete sense. I was confused in the previous messages that said you can just use the attorneyâs address on the back of the card. I was going to try like the previous person mentioned but NHR is not beneficial to me as I am not old enough to claim a pension. One thing is that I do have my password for the financas website and it will let me change the tax residence to any foreign location, but requires an in person visit if I want a Portuguese one. Happy to share a screenshot.
You can also request a change the address to Portugal through the portal, but itâs not in the same location as where you can change your address to foreign countries. Youâll need to send them a message through e-balcĂŁo with the residency proof attached and they should process it in a week or so.
As the December deadline was looming and we donât read/speak Portuguese, we hired an accountant to make the NIF address change and NHR application for us. They charged 100⏠per person and the timeline was something like:
Oct 31 - provided NIF documents and the passwords to Finanças website
Nov 12 - they realized that they forgot about my case when I pinged for an update
Nov 15 - NHR granted
We did not have to appear in person, but we do have a rental contract for a flat in Portugal that didnât appear to be necessary for this process.
I was not referring to changing the address on my NIF. That is my attorney. I was applying for NHR using the Bordr how to and it lists my taxpayer address in the US. It is moot as I do not have proof of PT address and am not willing to risk citizenship to try at this point.
