# William Gallagher



## Willgall (Aug 23, 2017)

Good afternoon

I am hoping to retire in Portugal about the middle of next year and was hoping someone could give me some guidance on finding out about all things financial. I literally have no idea so any help would be greatly appreciated.


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## siobhanwf (Mar 20, 2009)

Hi William and :welcome: to ExparForum
There is an abundance of information already on the forum. The easiest way to work you way through it is to work the SEARCH tag at the top of the page. This will give you a drop down menu. If you tick advance you can the choose a topic you wish to information on.make sure you choose Portugal to be country specific.
You can then choose what specific question you want to ask for further information on.


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## Easyriders (Apr 4, 2013)

First thing to do is get a NIF registration from a Financias, you can get one whether you are resident or not. You will need this to open a bank account, or to do just about anything else.

You don't say whether you will buy or rent a property, but you will need a NIF and a bank account to do either. Once you have a bank account, you can do almost all of your finances either online or by using your bank card at an ATM (Multibanco).

You should register as resident after you have been in Portugal for 3 months, and should do so within the fourth month. Lots of help on this forum on all your questions. Enjoy your retirement in Portugal!


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## Captainbeaky (Feb 13, 2016)

1. Get NIF - you need this to open bank accounts and get a long term rental etc
You don't need to be a resident, but make sure you set the correct status on your NIF, wether you are resident or not of if you want to go Non Habitual Residency. Look these up on this site.

2. Residency permit - you need to get this if you stay here longer than 3 months, and when you get it, you need to tell the NIF people, because from this point onward, you need to file tax returns. Everyone has to file tax returns- absolutely everyone, or you can and will face fines.

The date that you become a resident sets a few timers ticking - for tax and also customs. If you want to import a car tax-free, then you have to do it within six months of your residency date.

3, car import. You can drive a UK registered car for 6 months, but it has to be legal in the U.K. ( watch the insurance, as many insurers only give you 90 days , but local insurers have the ability to insure the car third party on the UK plates for a limited time) . If you plan to import this car tax free, then you can use this six months to get it all sorted ( it can be a lengthy process here in Madeira). And there are tax implications if you sell it, and only you can drive it for the first year!

However, if you plan to pay the import duty ( which is prohibitive on all but the smallest cars, but very reasonable on motorcycles and campers) then you must complete theimport and Matriculation ( registration) within 20 days, which is a very tight timescale, or face a €65 fine.

Cars are very expensive in Portugal, due to the high tax that is applied, so it's not a bad idea to bring a car with you, but do think carefully about what you bring - you must have owned the car for 12 months prior to bringing it over and I think it must have more than 6000 km on the odometer.

If you want to bring in a vehicle and pay the tax, it has to be over 12 months old and over 6,000 km on the clock, or they deem it as new, and charge VAT.

(Yes, this is contrary to EU law, but good luck with trying to argue that!)

If you bring a car, think carefully about what you bring - especially somewhere like Madeira - we don't have a Land Rover dealership, for example.

A Japanese car can be hard/expensive to find parts for - e.g. I can't find an exhaust for a daihatsu terios.

Cars are taxed on engine size / emissions, and big modern cars get hammered, so think twice before bringing your lovely 4.0 litre Jaguar over!.

RHD isn't such a problem, as long as you have good all round visibility, but you will have problems selling it on later, and parts can be harder to find.

At the moment, electric cars don't attract vat or circulation tax, so something like the Tesla Model 3 is actually a really good deal ( a €35k BMW would attract over €15k tax - approx).

It's worth employing an accountant to make sure your returns etc are all good - accountants are cheaper than uk. My business accountant costs about €450 per year
- private would be about €200, but they can make sure your NHR status is correct and advise on how it all works.

Where are you thinking of moving to?


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## Willgall (Aug 23, 2017)

Thank you so much for taking the time to compile such a comprehensive response. We did consider Portugal as a place to retire as well as Spain. Having visited Portugal we made the decision that it was nit for us. 

Once again, thank you.

Kind regards

W Gallagher


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## LA. (Jun 10, 2017)

Hello,

Where can you find the best Tesla's deals? Do you recommend any stand?

KR
Louis


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## smudges (May 2, 2013)

Willgall said:


> Thank you so much for taking the time to compile such a comprehensive response. We did consider Portugal as a place to retire as well as Spain. Having visited Portugal we made the decision that it was nit for us.
> 
> Once again, thank you.
> 
> ...


Do bear in mind that Spain has passed Modelo 920. Basically, as I understand it, if you are financially resident there you MUST declare ALL your worldwide assets over a certain amount. If you don't, stratospheric fines. You are automatically financially resident if you spend over 183 (I think it is) days in the country. They are really clamping down on all this....guess they're looking for a source of income now the UK taxpayer tap is about to turn off. This is why I am extremely suspicious of what the authorities will do with the info they have garnered on their expat population in the future, 
But maybe that's just me being suspicious and cynical.


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