I have an application in with Anchorless for an NIF, since I’m not in Portugal right now. I’m concerned about the POA that I need to sign. It says it’s for “tax representation” and that the agreement will be over once my NIF is issued. But there’s no date on it and nothing that says it’s revokable.
Is this normal?
I used a different company back in 2021 to obtain my NIF ( Bordr).
I signed a PoA for tax representation. The PoA was dated with the day I signed it, but it didn’t have an end date.
I didn’t experience any problems. I’d say what they’re asking you to do is normal.
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Joni, I am about to get a NIF online, from the US. Can you let us know about your experience with Anchorless? I’ve also been looking at Novomove. Did you sort the issue with the POA?
I just got four NIFs with anchorless. They seem legit.
Thanks for that, Paul. I’m going ahead with the NIF even though the change in tax laws have me questioning if I want to go forward with moving to PT>
What is the change you are referring to that is so substantial to change the plans?
Hi, there, sorry for the delay in my response. My experience with Anchorless was smooth. I don’t speak Portuguese so I didn’t want to spend my limited time in Portugal (before I move) trying to get the NIF.
Joni
The expiration of the NHR (?) status that allowed reduced / zero tax burden on resident foreigners. I’ll be looking for a tax rep to discuss what I might need to pay in taxes there.
Joni
I know this is late, but I got my NIF from Anchorless. However, I applied for a bank account from them and this is an issue. They are very difficult to contact and don’t respond to questions. I’d go a different route. The Portugalist site has several recommendations.
They seem legit…
The NHR is expiring? I wasn’t aware other than after 10 years.
No, it’s not expiring, but it’s changed. They call it NHR 2.0. It’s a better deal for Portugal, encourages people coming over to contribute to the economy. You can still live there on passive income, though.
I went with an online NIF, but after a year they charged me again to renew the service of representation even though I no longer required it. When I tried to cancel they told me I had to cancel with an office here in Portugal and I can’t cancel online. I would recommend if you could at least talk on the phone with someone or email a real person at the company to confirm that this is a one time payment and that you arent in some kind of subscription service.
This is either an outright lie or a half-truth at best.
When I cancelled my tax rep (not NIF online), 1) they emailed me the password associated with my NIF on the Finanças website, then 2) I took over the account and removed them online, then 3) I emailed them a screenshot showing they are no longer my tax rep. From that point, the relationship ended and they stopped charging for annual tax representation.
I would ask NIF online to get to point, and confirm whether they never bothered to set up online access to your account, or they are refusing to hand over access. If the former, check your contract to make sure they had no legal obligation to set it up, and newcomers on this forum should definitely be warned against using them. If the latter, report them to the private company equivalent of the Yellow Book.
FWIW, I had no problems with NIFOnline cancelling my tax representation.
It is true that they renew their service annually UNLESS you cancel their representation at the Financas by yourself.
It is also true NIFOnline will not cancel your tax representation for you, this needs to be done by the taxpayer doing one of the folliwing:
- appointing a new tax rep and they take over from the old, OR
- setting up online notifications at the Portal das Financas and requesting the cancellation of a tax rep directly to Financas.
You can contact Financas online through e-balcao.
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Tommy, did you have to physically go to a Finanças office to get your password?
If setting up the online account is not part of the service provided by a vendor, and doing it requires a physical trip by the client/taxpayer, then I think it’s in the client/taxpayer’s interest to know before paying for the initial service to obtain the NIF number. One basically has to be prepared to pay for annual tax representation until the password to Portal das Finanças is handed over / obtained / reclaimed.
I used NIFonline to obtain NIF in 2021. They did forward me AT online access password envelope. They did charge me the 2nd year of tax representation in 2022. Subsequently, my lawyer changed tax representation on AT portal and NIFonline automatically never contacted me since.
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NIFonline sent me the login/password to the Portal das Financas alongside my NIF information as soon as they obtained it. I was the only one accessing the Portal, NIFonline never needed to do it.
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I received a scan of my Financas access credentials from NIFOnline promptly, once they received it. They were understanding and cooperative when I changed my tax representative at the end of the annual cycle.
I’m using nif online, and I see that I can do it from the financas portal. So I’m doing that now thank you. No they never set up my account and since I had come as a student and wasn’t concerned with it during my first year once I did have to access financas I had difficulty because the address is the representatives and not your own and I hadn’t read that detail or had forgotten it after over a year. Now I also don’t know if they will give me access since I have not paid them the renewal since I’ve been blocked out of my paypal. Thats my own fault but I was trying to call them to ask if I can pay them another way and there is no answer. Anyways my final recommendation is its not bad as long as you are reading everything they send and make sure to cancel as I was unaware.