Accountants and corporate service providers in Porto

How the Porto market looks

Twenty-five of the firms are accounting practices, 3 are corporate service providers and 3 are law firms. Twenty-five are small practices, 5 are medium-sized and 1 belongs to a large network. In a market this size you will most often deal with the owner of the practice, which suits a company with a single shareholder and a short list of needs, and is less suited to a group that needs several offices covered.

Real estate is the industry named most often, by 7 firms. Healthcare and startups follow with 4 each, and freelancers, e-commerce, public sector work and industry appear twice each. The presence of healthcare and industrial clients says that these firms are used to businesses with staff, stock and contracts, not only to one-person consultancies. Expats and individuals are the client groups named most often (3 firms each).

Among entity types, the private limited company (Lda) is named by 6 firms, branches by 5, the public limited company (SA) by 3 and holding companies by 3. If you plan to hold shares in another business through a Portuguese company, ask which firms already work with holdings and how they handle the yearly filings.

Services and languages

Company formation is offered by 28 of the 31 firms, which is a high share, and tax compliance by all 31. Accounting is offered by 27, payroll by 23, VAT returns by 16 and audit by 9. Audit is more common here than in Lisbon in proportion to the number of firms, which can matter once a company grows. Corporate secretarial work and residency or visa help are each offered by 8 firms, and 4 firms assist with bank accounts.

Twenty-four firms work in Portuguese and 19 in English. Spanish and French are each offered by 7, and German by 2. Notices from the tax office are written in Portuguese, so ask the firm to confirm that its English covers them and not only the first meeting.

Next steps

For the legal steps of forming a company, read the Portugal country guide. If you are weighing a larger pool of firms, see Lisbon, and for the south of the country see Faro. If you would rather not write to firms one by one, a single free quote request reaches suitable firms through Accountanty.