Portugal Taxes for New Residents in 2026: NHR Is Gone, IFICI Is Not for Everyone
For fifteen years, Portugal’s pitch to newcomers was simple: the NHR regime offered ten years of favourable treatment, including a flat 20% on income from a long list of qualifying professions — a list broad enough that practically anyone who moved could find a place on it. That pitch still appears on plenty of websites. It shouldn’t — NHR closed to new applicants at the end of 2024.
Its successor is IFICI, informally called NHR 2.0. The headline is the same: 20% flat rate, ten years. The entry requirements are not. To qualify, you must not have been a Portuguese tax resident in the previous five years, and — this is the part the marketing tends to skip — your work must fall into a qualifying category: science and higher education, certified startups, R&D activity under the SIFIDE programme, or a defined list of highly qualified professions. It cannot be combined with the old NHR or with the IRS Jovem youth regime.
Put plainly: IFICI is not a relocation perk. It is a recruitment tool for people whose work the Portuguese economy wants. A software architect joining a certified startup likely qualifies. A consultant who simply moved to Lisbon and kept their old clients likely does not.
Without a special regime, you pay standard Portuguese personal income tax — IRS — on progressive brackets with a top rate of 48%. The gap between 20% and 48% is the entire reason to check your eligibility before you move, not after.
When does Portugal start counting you as a tax resident? After 183 days of presence in any 12-month period, or earlier if you keep a home there in a way that suggests permanent residence. The trigger is easy to hit by accident, and the planning has to happen in advance — once you’re resident, you’re resident.
For companies, the 2026 numbers look like this:
- Corporate tax (IRC) at 20%, with a reduced 16% on the first €50,000 of taxable base for small and medium companies.
- A municipal surcharge, the derrama, of up to roughly 1.5% depending on the municipality.
- Standard mainland VAT of 23%, with reduced rates of 6% and 13%.
The “17–21%” corporate figures in older articles reflect rates that no longer apply. Portugal has actually been cutting IRC year by year, which is a rare direction of travel in Europe — but the current number is 20%, and that is the one to plan with.
Whether IFICI fits your profile usually comes down to details: your contract, your employer’s certification, the exact professional code your activity falls under. If you want that checked against your situation rather than a brochure’s, arrange a free consultation with us before you book the movers.