Faq’s

Whoever has a Portuguese Fiscal Number is subject to legal and tax relations.

For non-residents in Portugal, as not being in the country more than 183 days per year, being this way advisable to mandate a fiscal representative in the Country, as per the terms of the article 19º nº 4 of the LGT, which says the following:

“Resident taxpayers abroad as well as those who, although residing in national territory, to be absent for a period of more than six months, as well as legal persons and other entities legally equivalent to cease activity, should, for tax purposes, designate a representative resident in national territory.”

The Fiscal Representative is allowed to represent you before the Portuguese Fiscal Department.

The Fiscal Representative is the Lawyer, which shall execute its mandate, with the possibility to substitute.

The Fiscal Representative is obliged to:

1. Present all fiscal declarations that the client is obliged to, under the Portuguese laws;

2. Proceed to the payment of taxes, upon prior payment of the necessary funds;

3. Claim, contest and appeal of all decisions of the fiscal department with which the client does not agree, since there are legal grounds to do so;

4. Provide to the fiscal department all the information required by them, under the terms that the same are provided by the client;

5. Keep the client informed about his fiscal situation;

6. The client is obliged to provide, in general, to the Fiscal Representative all relevant information that is requested by the Fiscal Representative, in the way that the mandate is fulfilled.

The client is specially obliged to:

1. Provide to the Fiscal Representative the identification of all subjects with whom has relevant legal and tax relations;

2. Provide to the Fiscal Representative all necessary information to fill the tax declarations;

3. Reply immediately to the questions placed by the Fiscal Representative, in a way to fulfill the mandate;

4. Provide to the Fiscal Representative the necessary provisions for the timely payment of any taxes as well as fines that arise from fail of out of date payments, for guilt or negligence of the client;

5. Provide to the Fiscal representative the necessary provisions to fulfill the services described;

The communications between the client and the Fiscal representative shall be done, preferably, by e-mail, being additionally been done by telefax or post.

The communications shall be done, by one party or the other, in terms that allow the good functioning of the processes deadlines or the ones fixed by the fiscal administration.

In case the client changes domicile, shall inform immediately the Fiscal representative.

The mandate for Fiscal Representative does not include the management of assets or rights of the client in Portugal, being that the client expressly declares that are its own ownership.

The client must declare to be aware of the contents of the artº 27º of the LGT, which says the following:

1. The managers of assets or rights of non-residents without permanent establishment in Portuguese territory are jointly responsible in relation to these and between them, for all contributions and taxes of the non-resident related to the financial exercise at is charge.

2. For the effects of the present article, are considered managers of assets or rights all persons, individual or company that assume or are entrusted, by any means, of the direction of businesses of non-resident entity in Portuguese territory, acting on the interest and on behalf of that entity.

3. The Fiscal representative of the non-resident, when different person of the manager of the assets or rights, shall obtain it’s identification and present it to the Fiscal Department, as well as inform in case of it’s inexistence, assuming, unless proven otherwise, manager of the assets or rights, in the absence of this information.

Under the hypothesis of mandating someone for the management of its assets or rights, or if those assets or rights are to be managed, in fact, by a person, the client is obliged to identify that person in the way that the Fiscal Representative can comply to the number 3. above.

Therefore a fiscal representative shall also proceed with the:

1. Confirmation that declarations that the client is obliged to provide to the Fiscal Department were prepared and provided like tax return forms, accountant reports, complaints, Appeals and judicial oppositions.

2. Reception of notifications and responses to them;

3. Provide the information requested by the Fiscal Department;

4. Information to the client of it’s fiscal obligations;

5. Confirmation of fiscal regularization of assets or rights on where the mandate is holder in Portugal, confirmation of the services related to such regularizations;

6. Confirmation of payment of the fines to which the delays or lack of declarations that appear are the responsibility of the client, apart from where there is proven negligence by the Fiscal Representative;

If you are buying a property in Portugal there are a few importants steps to proceed: first all the legal documents must be checked including the drawings of the house. Most people forget this important document but it is essential to find if the property is totally legalised or not.

One of the things more important to do is be sure that all but all documents are originals issues by the competent authorities, and must had been issued not more than 3 months before. Habitation license must in this conditions as well.

A promissory note prepared by a Lawyer must be signed by the vendor and the buyer. In this contract it is established the actions to be made by each party until completion to happen. It is agreed the deadline to delivery the key and the day of the final payment.

The final contract must be signed in the presence of a notary.

With the new legal rules there is the option of signning a final contract between vendor and buyer without a presence of the notary. It is called the "CASA PRONTA". We don´t agree with this due to several reasons: It is not true that, because it is not necessary to sign the final contract in the presence of the notary, that the legal expenses will be less. This is not correct.

People who defends the new sistem of CASA PRONTA forget that, buying a house using a draft contract which clauses are not possible to change as it is fixed, just to save around 200,00 euros (usually the legal expense of signning a contract witnessed by a notary) can cause serious damages to each party. The individuals interests are not considered and personal fiscal issues are not analised. Buying a house using CASA PRONTA is done in the presence of a person who usually has no legal acknowledge. Buyers and sellers can find themselves eventually in future problems which solutions will have extra costs.

Also, it is not true that people with saving accounts for habitation purposes will have a cheaper process. This will only happen under special conditions: must be permanent habotation and the saving account must be more than a year.

At last, it is said that with casa pronta the provisory registration it is not needed.. This is false. There are several situations where it is totally advisable to proceed with this provisory registration. No one decides in a minute to buy a house therefore between the decison of buying and the final contract only the provisory registration can give safety to the buyer.

If you are buying a property in Portugal definitely it is advisable to get legal assistance from a Lawyer. It is totally unacceptable that you proceed with the purchase process without getting full protection from someone who is professional qualified and can assume the responsability for the correct advice for your case. And if you deal with a real estate agent who has told you that you don`t need legal assistance it is obviously that this agent is not a high level qualified person and has no acknowledge of the high risk that he is creating for the person who is buying the property, you. It is a serious subject and it demonstrate lack of professionalism.

When you buy a property the legal search must include several issues as:

- Ownership (Who were and are the owners? Successive Owners? How they did acquire? Their marriage status?, etc). The idea is to find out about who is entitled to sell, who has full legitimacy.

- Description of the property (are you buying the correct property, what is the caracteristics of the property? will it be able to serve your purposes?)

- Fiscal history of the property (Find out about taxes and fiscal obligations on the property due to other transactions happened in the past; to check if there is fiscal debts)

- Licenses (it is required to check if the property is licensed for the use that you to make of the property, check drawings and planning permissions)

- Costs: the legal fees and expenses: You will have to support the payment of the notary and registration fees; the purchase tax and the duty stamp; the utilities contracts (water, electricity and gas) and the fee with the legal assistance. If you wish to have a break down of costs please send us an enquiry

Your purchase process requires to be analised considering your individual interest and purpose. There are diferent perspectives to take in consideration: the fiscal, finantial and personal matters, namely it will be necessary to qualify you as resident or non resident, to decide about the family ownership, if you are getting a mortgage make sure that you get the fair conditions.

After all the searches finalised a promissory note shall be signed if parties are not ready to complete despite they made up their minds in the decision of going ahead. With this contract signed there is a commitment between vendor and buyers that can not be broken without penalties. You must be sure that this contract is prepared by a Lawyer. Deed lehal consequences may occur if you do not get proper advice.

The promissory note must preview the total conditions of the purchase and sale as once it signed the obligations of each party are clear.

The transmission is done through a final contract that it will be used to apply the registration of the ownership into your name by the Land Registry Department. It is totally advisable that the contract is signed by a notary who will atribute a special legal value to the contract which will be totally considered legal and can`t be discussed in anyway.