AFPOP stands for Association of Foreign Property Owners in Portugal. This association was founded some 15 years following what already existed in Spain for many years.
At the moment thousands of foreigners have become members, initially only in the Algarve, later also in the rest of Portugal and the association also has representation in England.
For many years the Portuguese government has been promising to reform the existing tax system in relation to properties and inheritance and gift tax, which has been subject to tax abuse for many years.
General: In another article on this web site I have tried to explain already who is considered by the Portuguese tax authorities to be tax liable in Portugal. Not being a registered resident does not exclude you for not being a possible tax payer in Portugal. Being a Resident however automatically qualifies you as being a tax resident in Portugal also.
Now Portugal has become a rather popular holiday destination, many people also may consider this country as a more permanent base for the future to retire. As settling here definitely and buying a property straight away may for some people just a to bigger step at once we get many requests for people who before committing to the sale of their property at home have the idea or dream to first rent a property for a longer period.
Good morning to you all, and thank you for inviting me, as your guest speaker at the AFPOP meeting of this morning. Today we will speak about healthcare, which in the last years has become a hot item. Throughout Europe we hear complaints about poor assistance, in comparison to what it was before.
Building restrictions in the past In the old days “before 1994” we were used that planning consent could be obtained on nearly every plot of land as long as it had a kind of approval of the local Ministry of Agriculture that part of the land could be used for the construction of a house. This way most of the time we could apply to have 200 – 400m² of the land to be excluded from it agriculture classification. This document was normally good enough for the Bank of Portugal to give permission to import the necessary funds to purchase the property by a foreigner.
More and more people decide to come and live in Portugal and start a new life. Quite often now people are not prepared to wait till the education of their children has been completed in their home country. There is no doubt to my mind that a good and sound education will be the corner stone of a child’s future. For parents with children the Algarve has the following to offer.
The majority of people coming to the Algarve to purchase a property will firstly consider buying an existing property. This seems the easiest and fastest way as the advantage is there:
Tax on rental income in Portugal As many of you rent out your property through our services it is maybe good to know if and what you have to declare to the Portuguese tax authorities (Finançes). It is known know that undeclared rental income is high on the list of the Finançes. All rental income either received inside or outside Portugal but related to in Portugal situated real estate is subject to either IRS (income) tax, for property owned in your own name or IRC (corporate) tax for properties owned by an offshore property company.
