Accountants and company formation in Portugal

Setting up a company in Portugal

To set up a company in Portugal as a foreigner, you get a Portuguese tax number (NIF), pick a company type, register it at an Empresa na Hora counter or through Empresa Online, pay in the capital and file the declarations that follow. The registry part can be quick. The work around it is what takes planning: the NIF, the bank account and the accountant.

The common choice for foreign owners is a private limited company, the sociedade por quotas, known as an Lda. Among the firms Accountanty lists in Portugal, 26 name the Lda among the company types they set up, against 13 for the SA. What follows is the sequence step by step, the taxes a new company meets in 2026, and the yearly filings that keep it in good standing.

An Lda with two partners needs 2 euros of capital, a single-member Lda 1 euro and an SA 50,000 euros. Every shareholder needs a Portuguese NIF. You can incorporate at an Empresa na Hora counter for 360 euros or online, then deposit the capital within five working days and declare the beneficial owners within 30 days. Corporate income tax (IRC) is 19 per cent for periods starting in 2026, with 15 per cent on the first 50,000 euros for SMEs.

Choose a company type before you set up a company in Portugal

Three company types are the usual starting point for a foreign-owned business. In each of them, the owners’ liability is limited to what they put in.

The figures come from AICEP Portugal Global, the government’s trade and investment agency. All three types can be created through both fast-track routes described below.

A tiny capital is legal, but think about who will read it. A bank, a landlord or a supplier may ask how a company with 1 euro of capital will pay its way. Many founders put in more for that reason alone, and a regulated activity can carry its own capital rules.

A branch (sucursal) of your existing foreign company is the other route: it extends that company into Portugal rather than creating a new Portuguese one. Choose between a branch and a subsidiary with a lawyer and a tax adviser, since the answer depends on your home country’s rules as much as on Portugal’s.

Step 1: Get a Portuguese NIF for every shareholder

Portugal identifies everyone in a company by a tax number, the NIF (número de identificação fiscal). Non-resident shareholders must obtain a Portuguese NIF before the company is formed. A foreign company that becomes a shareholder needs a Portuguese number of its own, the NIPC.

How you get it depends on where you live:

• EU and EEA residents can request the NIF directly from the tax authority, in person or through someone they appoint.
• Residents of other countries must either appoint a representative resident in Portugal or sign up to an electronic notification channel, the Portal das Finanças notifications service or the electronic mailbox.

Start here. The registry asks for each partner’s NIF at the counter, and Empresa Online is closed to any shareholder without one. Once every shareholder holds a number, the rest of the process can run without you in the room.

Step 2: Choose Empresa na Hora or Empresa Online

Portugal offers two fast routes to a registered company. Both are run by the registries of the Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado (IRN), and both cover the Lda, the single-member Lda and the SA.

Empresa na Hora (the company on the spot)

Empresa na Hora is open to any person or legal entity. You go to a counter with all the future partners present, choose a name from a list of pre-approved names (or bring a name certificate already approved by the Registo Nacional de Pessoas Coletivas) and choose one of the pre-approved sets of articles. AICEP describes it as incorporation in less than an hour.

What to bring:

• For each individual partner: an identity document (Portuguese Citizen Card, passport or residence permit) and the NIF.
• For a company partner: its company card or access code, the resolution that authorises its representatives, their identity documents and its certificate or current articles.

The standard fee is 360 euros. If you register a trade mark at the same time, the fee is 200 euros plus 44 euros for each extra class of goods or services. You leave with the articles (pacto social), an access code to the permanent commercial certificate (certidão permanente), an access code to the company card and the company’s Social Security number.

Empresa Online

Empresa Online lets you file from anywhere, at any time. Every shareholder must sign in and sign digitally, with a Portuguese Citizen Card or Chave Móvel Digital. Foreign citizens can use a Chave Móvel Digital linked to their passport, or European eIDAS authentication. Lawyers, notaries and solicitors can file with their professional digital certificate, so a founder abroad can sign a power of attorney and let a professional file for them.

The online route has limits. It is not available when a shareholder has no Portuguese NIF, when a foreign company shareholder has no NIPC, or when capital is contributed in kind. Fees are 220 euros with the pre-approved articles and 360 euros with articles you draft, double for urgent requests. The registry reviews a filing within 5 days with pre-approved articles, or 10 days with custom articles. You pay within 48 hours of submitting, and any errors the registry points out must be fixed within 5 consecutive days.

Pick Empresa na Hora if all partners can be in Portugal on the same day and standard articles suit you. Pick Empresa Online if the partners are abroad or need their own articles, such as share transfer rules or several classes of manager.

Step 3: Settle the name, the articles and the managers

Whichever route you take, decide three things before the appointment or the filing:

• The name. The quickest choice is a pre-approved name, which you can adapt into a brand later. A name of your own needs a certificate of admissibility from the Registo Nacional de Pessoas Coletivas, which confirms that no other company uses it.
• The articles. Pre-approved articles cost less and are reviewed faster online. Custom articles make sense when there are several partners with different stakes or when you want rules on share transfers.
• The managers (gerentes). Decide who will run the company and sign for it, and where the registered office will be.

Also note the business activity code (CAE) that describes what the company will do. It feeds the tax registration and, for some activities, a licence.

Step 4: Deposit the share capital within five working days

You have 5 working days after incorporation to deposit the capital in the company’s bank account, unless it was paid at creation. The partners can instead declare that the capital will be delivered to the company by the end of its first financial year.

The bank account can be the slowest part for non-residents. Banks run identity checks on every shareholder and on the people who own a corporate shareholder, and a bank may ask to meet the managers in person. A provider that already works with Portuguese banks can save weeks. Accountanty lists firms that offer bank account assistance in Portugal.

Step 5: Declare the beneficial owners in the RCBE

Every new company declares its beneficial owners, the people who ultimately own or control it, in the Registo Central do Beneficiário Efetivo (RCBE). The deadline is 30 days after incorporation, on the RCBE platform. On Empresa Online you can declare them during the filing; if you do not, the same 30 days apply.

If a corporate shareholder sits between you and the Portuguese company, gather the ownership chart and identity documents of the people at the top before you start. Missing papers for that chain are what can slow this step down.

Step 6: Register for tax and appoint a certified accountant

A Portuguese company keeps organised accounts by law: commercial companies with their registered office or effective management in Portugal must keep organised accounting. Signing the financial statements and the tax returns built on those accounts is a reserved act of the contabilista certificado, a certified accountant registered with the Ordem dos Contabilistas Certificados (OCC).

At Empresa na Hora you name a certified accountant from the available pool. If you do not, the start-of-activity declaration is filed at any Finanças office within 15 days of the company’s creation. The accountant you appoint usually handles that declaration, the VAT registration and the Social Security registrations once you hire.

Of the 125 firms Accountanty lists in Portugal, 110 offer accounting and 124 offer tax compliance, so the firm that forms the company can usually keep its books too.

Taxes a new Portuguese company meets

Corporate income tax (IRC) is falling in stages under Lei n.º 64/2025. The general rate is 19 per cent for tax periods starting in 2026, 18 per cent for periods starting in 2027, and 17 per cent from periods starting on or after 1 January 2028.

Companies that qualify as SMEs or Small Mid Caps pay 15 per cent on the first 50,000 euros of taxable income and the general rate on the rest. That 15 per cent applies to periods starting on or after 1 January 2026. Whether your company qualifies depends on its size and its group, so ask your accountant to confirm it before the first return.

VAT (IVA) on the mainland has three rates: 23 per cent as the standard rate, 13 per cent for goods and services on List II and 6 per cent for those on List I. The autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores set their own reduced rates, so a company based in Funchal charges different VAT from one in Lisbon. Accountanty lists firms that handle VAT in Portugal and payroll in Portugal.

Annual filings after you set up

Two deadlines shape the company’s year once it trades:

1. The IRC return. The periodic income declaration is filed electronically by the last day of May, whether or not it is a working day.
2. The IES. The annual accounting and tax information declaration is due by 15 July. A company with a tax year other than the calendar year files by the 15th day of the seventh month after its year end.

Both carry the certified accountant’s signature, which is why the choice of accountant matters as much as the choice of company type. If your company needs an audit, Accountanty also lists firms that offer audit in Portugal.

Common mistakes foreign founders make

• Leaving the NIF until last. Without it, no partner can sign at the counter and the online route is closed.
• Choosing Empresa na Hora when a partner cannot travel. Every future partner must be present at the counter. If someone is abroad, file online through a professional instead.
• Forgetting the capital deadline. Five working days pass quickly when the bank is still checking documents.
• Missing the RCBE declaration. It is a separate filing with its own 30-day clock.
• Treating the tax rates as fixed. The IRC rate changes for periods starting in 2026, 2027 and 2028. Check which rate applies to your first tax period.

Where to find help to set up a company in Portugal

You can set up a company in Portugal on your own if every partner can visit an Empresa na Hora counter and your structure is simple. Many foreign owners still use a local firm, because the NIF, the bank account and the certified accountant all sit outside the registry, and the accountant is needed every year after.

Accountanty lists 125 firms in Portugal, 90 of which offer company formation in Portugal and 90 of which say they focus on foreign clients. Browse firms in Lisbon, Porto, Funchal and Faro, or our list of accountants for foreign clients in Portugal. If you are moving as well, check firms that handle residency and visas.

To set up a company in Portugal without contacting each firm yourself, send one free quote request through Accountanty. We review it and pass it to suitable firms, who reply with their terms.