# self employment



## noserhodes (Sep 13, 2011)

hi all can anyone offer advice/first hand knowledge of the following?.
lets say me and my partner set up as self employed in our chosen field,how does the portuguese system work.
what if our earnings were low ie maybe 100pw at outset for example, do they have a minimum threshold as in uk where you are allowed to earn a certain amount before you start paying taxes on earnings?
we have been in touch with inland revenue uk,and we can actually registar as self employed and pay taxes there if we were to spend 90days per year in uk.
that however would not be the way we want to go because although it makes things easy and understandable to us in simpletons terms, we would much rather pay our dues and spend our income in portugal,because to us that is what it is all about.
so is it a more complicated system.
i think i may or may not have been miss-informed by someone who told me we may have to pay up front in advance on as yet unearned income,is this true or false?
by all means we want to pay the correct amount in on what we do earn, but we certainly dont want to have to be paying ie upfront in advance on money we may well not earn.
any help or info will as usual be very gratefully recieved thanks everyone


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## siobhanwf (Mar 20, 2009)

Hi there

I can put you in touch with a lady who helped another friend set up a self employed business here in Caldas da Rainha.
She is Portuguese and speaks perfect English.






noserhodes said:


> hi all can anyone offer advice/first hand knowledge of the following?.
> lets say me and my partner set up as self employed in our chosen field,how does the portuguese system work.
> what if our earnings were low ie maybe 100pw at outset for example, do they have a minimum threshold as in uk where you are allowed to earn a certain amount before you start paying taxes on earnings?
> we have been in touch with inland revenue uk,and we can actually registar as self employed and pay taxes there if we were to spend 90days per year in uk.
> ...


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

Self employment is a very different scenario here, more complicated and expensive than UK.
You get an initial honeymoon period of 12 months for Social security contributions, which your payments are then based on but your looking at between 25 to 32% of earnings or thereabouts. There is provision depending on income for lower %'s or zero 

What is it you intend to do and where do you hope to earn your income, it has a great bearing on how you go about things.

There are two types of self employment here
1. similar to UK. If you file and manage your own returns, you can claim 25% expenses, pay tax & S/S on balance, if you employ an accountant you can claim valid business expenses.

2. Green Receipts (their actually blue and now online) where you bill a company, organization for your services, deduct tax & S/S & pay monthly or some companies withhold and pay.
Once honeymoon period is over you pay monthly and under or over payments are adjusted at year end.
Portuguese Tax year is January to December. 
IVA (VAT) thresholds are considerably lower than UK and also apply to different sectors.

You really need to find yourself a good accountant, know what you want to do and find out the best way to go about it, it is an area that is very different to UK and starting off on the right foot extremely important.


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## noserhodes (Sep 13, 2011)

thanks for your replies, there are a couple of avenues to explore but obviously i need to do lots of research first to see if it would be viable.
i am qualified in a couple of fields, i owned a barber business for approx 12years, could be scope for mobile if i was to achieve enough clients and condense the distances together, again it needs to be researched properly.
also have worked as a decorator for many years, but again that may only come to odd small jobs i know these are difficult times for everyone.
its not really paramount that i need to earn an income its more a case of going stir crazy as i am not one to sit about, and after iv,e completed my renovation works i dont really want to be sat idle.
if i did decide to go ahead with any plans i obviously want to do things correctly and therefore declare as self employed as and when required.


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

Portuguese Barbers charge around €5


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## noserhodes (Sep 13, 2011)

yes wages are very low in pt, you can get builders for around fifty euros a day unheard of in uk!!!!


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