You received your NIF recently?
Good news! My NIF has arrived. Everything looks fine.
That took longer than expected (since Nov 8), because of COVID I suppose, but the setup process was smooth and they delivered the expected outcome. I am planning to commence in January so the delay was acceptable for my purposes.
They responded to all customer service inquiries within 2 business days while I was anxiously awaiting this day. The confirmation message reiterates that they will forward any tax correspondence to me by email for one year. I presume that I can renew or change as expiration approaches.
cc @tkrunning
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David
Glad to hear that worked out. I stand corrected. 
I still donāt understand how they do that so cheap. This company is on the hook for you if you skip out on your tax obligations, and it seems to me they dont charge enough money there to cover their risk and the time to manage the NIF process.
I am at a loss to explain it.
As I understand it, the financial representative isnāt on the hook for your monetary obligations; thatās solely on the taxpayer. Theyāre just obliged to respond in a timely fashion to certain paperwork. My best guess is that someone worked out that all of this stuff is boilerplate, and that thereās an enormous economy of scale turning it into an assembly line. I believe they have a tax attorney on staff or on call for the requisite attestation interview and for the 0.1% of weird or novel cases.
They may also be test-marketing the service at a loss-leading price point to get this launched and collect some experience. Perhaps they will employ pricing theory to optimize the menu in years ahead.
Reading between the lines from the wording of polite responses to my occasional inquiries, theyāve been having a miserable time with the government slowdown. I suspect their customer service team has had the worst of it. My sympathies to everyone whoās having a bad time in this era. I strive to be understanding and only rattle cages when itās vital. In this case the delay made me anxious, but didnāt interfere with my plans and timeline.
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Hi David! Did you use their services? Really appreciate if you share it with me 
Yes, nifonline worked fine for me; I am pleased with the service and the value.
The document verification call was scheduled promptly and completed smoothly. It took about a month to get the NIF because of government processing delays. I received my NIF document as expected. They assisted me with getting my online account set up with the tax authority (since I mixed up my NIF with the representativeās NIF.) They promptly forward scans of any documents received by postal mail.
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Question for the group. I checked with a few sources but couldnāt get a clear answer. If I apply for the golden visa with my wife and kids, do we all need to get a NIF? I realize once we live there we will all eventually need to get one, but for the initial GV application and renewals, does every family member need a NIF?
No. It is my understanding (Iām in month 2 of the journey) that only the GV applicant needs the NIF.
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Another online option that Iāve read others (in Americans and Friends PT FB group) having success with: Bordr
150 EUR/year
Thanks for the information. I would like to know, did you receive the temporary finance number? Did you pay any fees for the finance number? I am an EU resident but not EU citizen & I would like to apply for Portuguese finance number for myself and my wife. Please let me know if it works for us. Also let us know about the required documents for finance number! Thank you very much!
I decided to go with bordr over nifonline.pt as they were a lot more transparent about the following:
- Information about the founders
- An actual complete privacy policy, including information about the business entity.
- They have reviews for their main business, Designstaq, which are extremely positive (Facebook, Google)
- They were very responsive to questions I had about the service (same/next day responses)
I think the above factors were worth the premium over nifonline.pt. I could not find any information about the entities behind nifonline.pt and that was very concerning to me.
I applied for an NIF through bordr this March. It took them 1 business day to send over a document to grant power of attorney for the local Portuguese tax representative and I got the NIF the next business day! All in all it was 3 business days from payment to receiving my NIF.
I am extremely pleased with their service and would recommend them to anyone looking to spend a little more for transparency.
I went with nifonline. Super straightforward and got it in 5 days. Both are good options I guess.
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Hi,
I couldnāt find an answer to my question anywhere, so here it goes. Is it normal to pay āannual feeā to keep your NIF? Say, I have a plan to move to Portugal at some point but not any time soon partially because of Covid but also I need to work for another few years before I become ready to move. Is there an advantage of obtaining NIF earlier even if you donāt live in Portugal anytime soon?
Thanks in advance!
I canāt imagine any advantage to getting NIF sooner if you donāt need it. People getting NIF are doing so because itās needed for property purchase or investment or otherwise for something based in .pt.
Thanks for your reply.
Thatās what I figured as well but what I donāt understand is how/why these services like NIFOnline or Borde charge āannual feeā to maintain the tax representative status of your NIF. If youāre not a Portugal resident, do you need a tax representative at all times for your property or investment in Portugal?
According to NIFonline.pt FAQ: āYesā is the answer even if you donāt live in Portugal.
I dont know what NIFonline charges for tax representation. I thought someone said it was only $69 or something like that. If so, It is cheap compared to what the professional lawyer-referred representatives charge.
As long as it is acceptable to SEF I suppose it does not matter how much it costs.
That ā$69 or something like thatā was āper yearā. I am curious about why itās not a one-time fee. What is SEF?
Itās like owning a LLC in the US. You need to have a āregistered agentā, someone who lives in the state that the state can mail notices about your LLC to (like say, the annual notice that you owe your LLC taxes). You might get one letter every 5 years, you might get 100. But someone has to provide an address and open the mail.
Youāre paying for someone to let you use their address and open the letter and send you the contents and officially accept responsibility for receiving the letters on your behalf.
If you have a business in the state with an address in the state that you can receive mail for your LLC at reliably, you donāt need a registered agent. Though some businesses choose to pay the $100/year for one just out of certainty and safety. Nor do you need one of the service bureaus to file your LLC paperwork with the state; you can print the forms and go to the state office and register your LLC and find the right newspapers and publish the ad in the newspaper you need to in order to publish public notice in the right way.
If you donāt have such a registered agent or otherwise make arrangements, and your annual notices go into the bin, you donāt know how much to pay or when, the state puts your LLC into arrears, you lose your registration, and the next time someone asks the state if your LLC is valid they say ānoā and your LLC-y world comes crashing down. You can attempt to work this system by guessing the timing and payments but generally this wonāt work out well for you and youāre better off paying the $125/yr to not have to think about it.
If you have a friend in Portugal you trust to open your mail and send you the contents of the letter who lets you use their address, and you can walk into an IRS (portuguese tax people) office and file the paperwork in Portuguese to get your NIF number, you donāt need NIFonline.
Or you are like most people, unable to get to Portugal, without an official residence in Portugal, without such a friend living in Portugal (or not willing to burden them in this way), and having no understanding of how to go to the right office with the right form in Portuguese to file the form - in which case you pay NIFonline to do this for you. You pay $69/year for them to file your paperwork, let you use their address and for them to accept responsibility on your behalf, and for the promise they will send you any notices they receive from the IRS. Thatās it.
If you donāt have such a representative, your notices go into the ether, the IRS gets pissy after a while because you donāt get their notices and they donāt hear from you, and you become persona non grata, causing you infinite future problems should you one day choose to move there. If you pay NIFonline to get your NIF, then stop paying them, they tell the portuguese IRS they refuse to serve you anymore and throw your notices into the bin because they are not getting paid any more and thus you arenāt their problem, see above for consequences.
(An example of such problems: I once had to use the UK NHS. I racked up a very large bill. I got a letter later from the NHS with a bill, and a notice saying āif you do not pay this bill promptly, we will tell HMCustoms that you may no longer enter the UK for any reason ever again for the rest of your life, yes we will take credit cards, thank you, have a nice dayā. I could have not paid the bill with no future consequence - what was HMgov going to do to me in the US? I decided I might want to go there again someday and it was the right thing to do anyway to pay for services fairly rendered, and paid the bill. It was actually quite the bargain - ER, trauma ward, ambulance, transfer to another hospital, 7 surgeries with 2 weeks of step-up ward post-op, $10k. )
For $69/yr, this is a relative bargain.
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