Hi that is not correct. Below is further explanation. But to start with I want to mention that I am not a tax expert or legally qualified to advice you on this. Therefore this is only my experience and understanding and you need to take professional advice. However, I am an experienced financial executive who has dealt with both corporate taxes and personal taxes as an expat in various countries. Based on that below is my response to your question.
If you take up tax residency in Portugal you most likely will have to file taxes in Portugal first and have to show your world wide income. If you do not have the NHR status you will have to pay the Portuguese tax rate for your worldwide income level (30% in your example). Then you will file your US tax returns where you will claim the taxes paid in Portugal as a credit. Therefore you will not pay any taxes in the US. Therefore please note that if you donāt have NHR status in general you will end up paying the higher tax rate between Portugal and the US. That is the 30%.
However, if you have the NHR status as a tax resident in Portugal, and all of your income is from an US source that income is exempt from taxes in Portugal. In effect you will be paying the 20% in the US (in your example).
Please note that both US and Portugal tax on global earnings. The examples and answers above are purely on personal income. There are different rules and rates for capital gains, dividends etc. etc.
If you seriously plan to reside in Portugal in the near future or mid term it is worth taking the NHR. If you are a GV holder and plan to get your citizenship etc. in Portugal in five years it is still worth to get the NHR even if your first 5 years will mostly be spent living outside Portugal. This is because the NHR is valid for 10 years.
of course the challenge is to show that you are tax resident or intend to live in Portugal. Either you need to own property there or have a lease.
One also needs to ensure that once you get your tax residency you immediately apply for the NHR and ensure you get it Otherwise you will be paying the Portuguese tax rates which as you know are considerably higher than the US. The way that systems work in Portugal, hopefully there will not be a back log of NHR applicants due to the rush to get NHR status.
I hope that answers your question. If not you can PM me and we can get into more details.
Reply yes. But if you donāt have NHR status in Portugal you will have to pay the higher amount. Either that or you pay the full amount and have to reclaim from the US.
I have GV based on commercial investment. The GV residency card has lawyers address. Later I purchased an apartment in Madeira and want to change address to Madeira apartment but I was told I need to update the address on residence card first at SEF in person.
Itās impossible to find a Sef appointment to address change. So I just accepted using my lawyers address for my finance address at the office. But funny thing is ā¦in parallel I also made a request online and the online system accepted my request today and they did change the finance address to my house here in Funchal.
Do you have your PT residency already? That certainly makes it easier.
My request from 20 days ago is still stuck in āRegistadaā state, and our advisors tell us AT Madeira basically ignores e-balcĆ£o (āautonomyā taken too far).
@Garrett This is what Iāve been told by the tax department of my Portuguese lawyers.
If you do a casual search about the NHR then youād be led to believe that all income and capital gains taxes are exempt from taxes in Portugal but thatās absolutely not the case.
Even under NHR, anyone with capital gains from normal ETFs - for example tracker funds from iShares or Vanguard - traded on a platform outside PT is still liable for capital gains tax in Portugal. This was confirmed to me by our tax lawyers.
They advise clients to shift investments into high-income funds rather than growth funds. Okay, for 10 years of NHR that makes short-term sense but then youād be left with lower overall wealth so Iām not sure itās the best advice.
Oh well. Our raised expectations of the GV and NHR are crumbling anyway so this detail makes little difference.
One might consider the implications should you have a larger sized 401K or Roth. The rush to become a tax resident of Portugal may have some unexpected impacts.
I understand this varies with the DTT between the two jurisdiction & the type of entity that holds the securities. The OECD Model Treaty gives tax rights for gains from securities to the country of residence, and income from securities to the country of source, but not all DTTās do so.