The End of Portugal's Non-Habitual Residence (NHR) Program Announced

I don’t quite get the connection here.
Simply, if you hit the criteria for becoming a PT tax-resident, then you may go to Financas and register yourself as such.
Nobody is going to ask you anything about any DTAAs at that point!

[quote=ā€œcoasterfreak18, post:455, topic:61346ā€]
If there is a possibility that I will move to PT within ten years and work there,

- this ā€œifā€ clause does not apply, as I explained in my posts above., you may never move to PT but still benefit from NHR depending on your tax setup

is it wise to register for the NHR scheme?

- generally yes, but see next point

I also have some income from investments. How are they taxed on NHR?

- NHR benefits come in two ways - exemption or reduced rate. So you need to read up the NHR rules to figure out if your current/planned income fits one or ther other and if that will give you any tax benefit compared to what/where you pay now.

If that’s your better half’s intent, get NHR. There is practically no downside to you when you are still living and working in the U.S. The PT taxes will be trivial, and most likely you will owe nothing to them since NHR shields you from most sources of income that are already taxed in the U.S. My U.S. taxes are well over hundred pages long, and my PT tax returns are still trivial and the net payment is 0 €.

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I’m working on a petition that requests, among other things, that the 2023 NHR be extended for GV applicants who applied on or before Dec. 31, 2023 (the cut-off date for the old NHR) and become tax residents within 1 year of receiving their first card.

It’s a reasonable accommodation given that the NHR was part of the total mix of benefits that made the underlying investments work for many of us.

That said, I’m not confident the PT government will make the accommodation given how they’ve been treating us.

So, I’m still going to try to get tax residency this year and apply. But it is not at all clear that people who only have a filed application and have not even received pre-approval (as is the situation for most of us who filed in 2022 or later) will be allowed to change their tax residency.

Actually, it is reasonable to expect that no accommodation will be made for any GV seekers, or, for that matter, any other immigration applicants.

But it is not at all clear that people who only have a filed application and have not even received pre-approval (as is the situation for most of us who filed in 2022 or later) will be allowed to change their tax residency.

Again, the FinanƧas dissociate tax residency with legal residency. One agency (FinanƧas) is interested in collecting revenues from anyone who lives in PT, legally or not. The other agency (AIMA) is indifferent to what your tax status is and follows completely separate set of instructions.

If you follow the guidelines given in earlier posts and you have your immigration application filed prior to then end of 2023, you should be able to obtain NHR prior to the end of 2024.

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We are going to try. But @PCERoman, your situation was after pre-approval and apparently the practice at finanƧas has changed. Several tax attorneys have said we at least need a biometrics appointment to get tax residency. I’ll update this thread when we have an outcome to report.

We are GV applicants from 3/23, yet to receive pre approval. We just secured our NHR (please see my post from above), we had a fantastic experience with ADA legal out of Lisbon (our house investment is in the Douro Valley). Please reach out to them if you are in a similar situation, they can help!

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I am planning to talk to a tax partner at my law firm next week, but out of curiosity, you said ā€œmost sourcesā€ … do you know of any non-PT source income that is not shielded by NHR? I have very complicated taxes, including sourced income from a number of foreign countries due to the way my employment is structured, so my fear is getting surprised.

Its not the length of your taxes, but how you file them!

Okay I have an interesting situation. I already have my GV, but my spouse has not applied (their home country doesn’t allow dual citizenship, so didn’t see any benefit). Our aim was mostly to get the citizenship for me and our kids.

Does that mean that my spouse 100% cannot get the old NHR? Even if we filed a family reunification this year it would be too late?

In that case, I guess I don’t have to worry about it further. I assume NHR for me but not for my spouse would be worthless since most of our investments are joint.

IRA distributions and social security benefits are taxed at 10% under NHR. How that works under the DTT I’m unclear about.

I can only speak for the U.S.-based sources of income. Based on my tax returns, US-based interest income, dividend income, rental income, and regular income were all not taxed in PT due to NHR. My understanding is that Social Security payments will be taxed in PT at 10%, and so are the withdrawals from Roth IRA.

Your situation might vary depending on your country of tax residence due to taxation treaties with PT (if any).

If I were to guess (and that’s all I can do), I would presume it is too late for your wife. The application should have been filed prior to the end of 2023 per the current text of the law.

Too bad you didn’t start family re-unification process earlier…

Agreed, but let’s say they are more involved than just basic 1040 with standard deductions.

Actually looks like my spouse is eligible, per NHR Portugal Tax Regime 2025: What Every Expat Should Know

Having a residence visa or a residence permit valid from December 31, 2023
…
Being a member of the household of anyone who meets the above criteria

So looks like me having the GV, may make my spouse and kids eligible. Although I guess they would still need to apply this year.

That’s great! I hope you can get for her as well.

Ask a tax attorney in PT.

The transitional scheme is supposed to work for household members as well, but you’ll still need to prove tax residency. There are various ways to do that. We’re going to try to just put the utilities at our property in my dependents’ names. If you didn’t go the property route, may be harder.

Fresh Portugal covered a lot of the edge cases (e.g. who qualify as household members) and other questions being asked in this thread in their webinar last month. I even learned that I would qualify for NHR if I were to ā€œmove inā€ with my Portuguese in-laws by the end of the year…

For anyone considering applying for NHR this year, it’s well worth a watch.

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People take the position that withdrawals from a regular IRA/401K are taxed at 10% because they are analogized to PT pre-tax funded retirement plans, Roth unclear because it is post-tax dollars. Some suggest it might be outside of NHR and in the 85/15 method.

That might be. We are still few years away from RMDs. :blush:

On the other hand, regular IRA withdrawals are treated as ordinary income in the U.S., and will be taxed there as such. I am hoping it would be declared as such and shielded by double taxation treaty. By then, my NHR would expire…