Portugal Golden Visa - The New Law of 2023

So the habitual residence there is just having an apartment or whatever that is exclusively used by you? And having that will make you a tax resident of pt?

So having a little place in the Alentejo can even make you a tax resident even if you donā€™t spend much or any time there? Hmm

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Look at what happened in Cyprus for example: ā€˜Golden passport' schemes: Commission proceeds with infringement case against MALTA - European Commission

Cyprus repealed its scheme and stopped receiving new applications on 1 November 2020. However, it continued to process pending applications. As a result, the Commission decided to send a reasoned opinion to Cyprus on 9 June 2021. Since then, Cyprus stopped processing applications and, as of 15 October 2021, revoked the citizenship of 39 investors.

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Good example of the worst case scenario.
PT being a larger EU country, probably has more leverage to shape and modify their program as desired without pressure. Plus huge internal lobby from Mercan et al.
They can also make it onerous to renew, delay them indefinitely to sunset the program.

INVESTMENT COST FOR AUSTRIA GOLDEN VISA

The minimum investment for citizenship by investment in Austria is typically ā‚¬10 million if made directly into a business, or ā‚¬3 million as a contribution to the government development fund. Whilst you will have to make a significant contribution to the economy, other fees such as administrative fees and consultation costs should also be considered.

Austria Citizenship & Residency by Investment | Golden Visas

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I believe that interpretation is correct.
I would add that the individual would need to have the legal status in Portugal to fulfil their intention - ie arriving on a tourist visa wouldnā€™t cut it, however a status such a applying for a GV or possession of EU citizenship etc would imho

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I agree with what you said. The number of applicants is not big enough. It usually happens like this in all other aspects of life. If someone steals some goods in supermarket which has a value of 5-10Euros, the amount is too small to have an investigation by police. But if the damage is 5k-10k Euros, then the police will be called for the further investigation. Austrian are foxes. They know how to do this kind of business. Just lay low and keep things as discretely as possible, they will last much longer than the louder and noisier ones like Portugal Cyprus Greece and Malta.

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As the old saying goes
Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi

In other words, all EU members are equal but some are more equal than othersā€¦

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Just a friendly heads up to others who may, like me, have been on the cusp of applying when the announcement happened.

I had planned on going the Mercan route. Theyā€™re currently claiming that any applications submitted now which fail to result in an approved application would be refunded. However, both my lawyer and I have been trying for weeks to get them to amend the investor agreement to reflect this and it hasnā€™t happened. So buyer beware until itā€™s in the contract.

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Curious to hear what reason they are giving for not including it in the contract? I think what Iā€™ve heard is that they issue a separate letter with the terms for refund, but I havenā€™t yet seen it myself. Perhaps thereā€™s a legitimate reason for doing it that way, but not sure what that would beā€¦

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No idea what contract theyā€™re offering now. The contract I signed with Mercan over a year ago, lists various conditions for triggering the buyback, e.g. Mercan can trigger it once the investor has citizenship, and the investor can trigger it if their ARI is refused for reasons outside their control.

That wouldnā€™t refund any of the lawyer fees or property tax, but would theoretically refund the main investment.

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I was told that Mercan will only refund if the investor uses IAS and not other law firms. I was in that situation so I asked. The reasoning is that it is too risky for them to coordinate with another law firm with the time limitations, etc. and not knowing where the client file is.

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Heard there are further updates discussed today on the national TV, anyone has more news on that?

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I am continually perplexed by how things operate here. The government is making a big fuss about people trying to beat the deadline and the government clearly wants to stop this. But they continue to accept new applications??

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No laws have changed as it stands. Thereā€™s only been an announcement about a desired change - a proposal. The next step is that proposal gets some debate in 10 days. From there the proposal could be further amended. Until the law passes, nothing is changed, and everyone is only guessing (educated guesses, but still) about what the ultimate ramifications will be.

Attached document is useful summary.

Changes GV 2023 - March 4th.pdf (783 KB)

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Quick follow-up on this - I asked my lawyer specifically about renewals for GVs related to non-real-estate investment funds. Their view is that such renewals are unaffected by the draft legislation, but of course all could change as the bill progresses.

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I saw a mention in Expresso today that Marcelo (the Portuguese president) would comment on the housing package on Thursday.

I guess heā€™s finally opened the melon, itā€™ll be interesting to hear what he thinks of it.

AI Photo Credit: Midjourney

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100 day deadline for property owners - The Portugal News

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Why not simply go for a fund such as the IMGA Acoes fund? You can purchase this through Millenium BCP who can open your bank account remotely - for this you deal with the private banking/private client part, not the retail banking part. With this fund you are not tied in in any shape or form. You simply sell your units and withdraw your money if for whatever reason you donā€™t get the GV or you change your mind and decide to abandon the process. I donā€™t know if there is some issue with US investors, youā€™d need to check with the bank. But this is the route I took and it is much less hassle than getting tied up in complicated contracts with a property developer and wondering what happens should they go bust or not honour their promises and assurances.

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Agree.

  1. The draft legislation indicates that applications made after 16th Feb will be tossed out anyway. That may not hold, but anyone applying now should regard that as a very strong possibility. Maybe that date moves, but Iā€™d want an approach that takes the shortest possible time and minimises walk-away costs

  2. The draft also seems to suggest that anything that avoids real estate can proceed as before for renewals, while restrictions on real estate will be introduced which still seem incoherent. While this conflicts with some comments made before the draft was published, itā€™s consistent with the objective of the legislation which is to fix the housing issues. So Iā€™d avoid real estate.

If I was starting from here, I would hire a lawyer, make a fund investment (IMGA or BPI), put in an application asap (even if it lacked an apostille or two) and cross my fingers that the 16th Feb drop-dead date is moved. And if my application was thrown out, I just redeem the fund and move on.

Not a lawyer, this may all be wrong, take your own advice. But Iā€™m with elle1

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This is for housing units that have already not been used for at least a year, which may be identified by no use of utilities, cable/internet, etc. This is also the part of the proposals that have received the most criticism across the political spectrum in Portugal, with a significant likelihood of running into constitutionality issues as implemented in the draft.

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