What does Habitual Residence mean in Portugal?

[peter55555]

Portugal considers an individual to be tax resident if:

• Spends more than 183 days, consecutive or not, in Portugal in any 12-month period starting or ending in the fiscal year concerned.
• Regardless of spending less than 183 days in Portugal, maintains a residence (i.e. a habitual residence) in Portugal during any day of the period referred above.

My question is: If I am a legal resident in Portugal and permanently rent a property there with the intention of using it just for 3 or 4 months each summer, will Portugal consider me tax resident? What do they mean by "habitual residence"?

I am not looking forward to becoming a tax resident in Portugal. I am not interested in their NHR program. I just want to have legal residency there, a permanent place to spend the summer each year, and after a couple of years get Portuguese citizenship.

 

[TheCryptoAnt]

Probably yes.

You literally maintain an address and are aiming for citizenship.

Unless your other residence, where you actually live, is in another UE country you are in the hook.

 

[Allisgood]

I think you will only get the citizenship NOT living there more than 183 days a year if you invest via the Golden Visa route.
But you will have to prove strong ties to Portugal (google examples for that) and pass the language test.

Otherwise if you don’t go via the Golden Visa route, you would probably have to become tax resident and show that you have physically been there most of the year.

I believe Portugal won’t just hand out their citizenship to anyone pretending to live there without actually contributing either by investing into the golden visa or paying annual taxes.

 

[Radko]

Portugal considers an individual to be tax resident if:

• Spends more than 183 days, consecutive or not, in Portugal in any 12-month period starting or ending in the fiscal year concerned.
• Regardless of spending less than 183 days in Portugal, maintains a residence (i.e. a habitual residence) in Portugal during any day of the period referred above.

My question is: If I am a legal resident in Portugal and permanently rent a property there with the intention of using it just for 3 or 4 months each summer, will Portugal consider me tax resident? What do they mean by "habitual residence"?

I am not looking forward to becoming a tax resident in Portugal. I am not interested in their NHR program. I just want to have legal residency there, a permanent place to spend the summer each year, and after a couple of years get Portuguese citizenship.

If you are permanently renting in Portugal, you should consider taking advantage of the NHR program, it would be easier to get citizenship after a few years.