A substantial share of the international buyers we work with in Lisbon are self-employed — freelancers, remote workers, consultants, small-business owners. Moving to Portugal as a self-employed person is straightforward in principle, but the paperwork is specific, and the tax and social security setup has knock-on effects on mortgage eligibility and long-term financial planning.
This guide covers the practical setup. It isn’t a substitute for proper tax advice — any income-planning decisions should go through a Portuguese accountant (contabilista) — but it’ll give you the shape of what to expect.
The core setup: Abrir Atividade
Before you can invoice clients legally from Portugal, you need to “open activity” (abrir atividade) at the tax authority — Autoridade Tributária, or Finanças. This registers you as a self-employed taxpayer for IRS (personal income tax) and for social security.
You’ll need:
- Your NIF (Portuguese tax number)
- A Portuguese address — your own or a rented one
- A chosen CAE code (Classificação das Atividades Económicas — the activity classification: writer, consultant, designer, software developer, etc.)
- Your expected turnover for the first year
You can file abrir atividade online via Portal das Finanças (Chave Móvel Digital helps here), in person at a Finanças office, or through your contabilista.
The filing itself is free. Most freelancers do it through an accountant to avoid mis-classifying their CAE or choosing the wrong tax regime at the start — both of which are painful to change later.
Recibos Verdes — how you get paid
Once you’ve opened atividade, you invoice clients through recibos verdes (“green receipts”) — the Portuguese equivalent of a freelance invoice. These are issued directly through the Finanças portal: you enter the client, the amount, the VAT (if applicable), and the system generates a legal invoice.
Key points:
- VAT (IVA) threshold — if you expect less than €15,000 in turnover in your first year (rising in subsequent years) you’re exempt from charging IVA. Above that, you register for IVA and charge the standard rate (23% in mainland Portugal).
- Clients abroad — if you invoice non-Portuguese clients, the VAT treatment differs. Most freelancers working for overseas clients end up with zero-rated IVA, but your accountant needs to handle this.
- Withholding (retenção na fonte) — for Portuguese clients, a portion of your invoice may be withheld as advance IRS payment. Foreign clients don’t withhold.
The simplified tax regime
Most new freelancers sit under the regime simplificado, where your taxable income is calculated as a fixed percentage of your turnover (75% for most service activities). You don’t need to track every expense — the percentage is meant to approximate your profit margin.
Above about €200,000 turnover, you’re pushed into contabilidade organizada (organised accounting), where you track actual expenses and deduct them. That requires a contabilista.
IRS rates are progressive and run from around 13% to 48% depending on your income band. For a freelancer earning €40,000–€60,000, effective rates typically land in the 20–30% range.
Social security — the big one for mortgages
Freelancers pay Taxa Social Única (TSU) — social security contributions — at a rate of 21.4% of a deemed income base. The deemed base for new freelancers is calculated from your declared turnover (roughly 70% of it), and is re-assessed quarterly.
Year-one exemption: when you first open atividade, you’re exempt from TSU for the first twelve months. This is meaningful — it gives you time to settle before the contributions kick in.
Why it matters for mortgages: Portuguese banks look at your TSU contributions to assess self-employed income, along with your IRS filings. A freelancer with two full tax years and consistent contributions is considered a normal borrower. A freelancer in their first six months of atividade is, from a bank’s perspective, unproven — which affects mortgage approval.
If you’re planning to buy soon after moving, coordinate the timing: many freelancers find it’s cleaner to buy with cash or a portion of financing sourced outside Portugal in the first year or two, then refinance later once the Portuguese tax file has matured.
NHR and IFICI — the tax regime picture
The Non-Habitual Resident (NHR) regime — the flat 20% income tax regime that attracted many freelancers to Portugal — closed to new entrants at the end of 2023. Existing NHR holders keep their rates for the remainder of their ten-year window.
The replacement, IFICI (Incentivo Fiscal à Investigação Científica e Inovação), is narrower. It targets scientific research, technology, and specific innovation-related roles. Most generalist freelancers — writers, consultants, designers — don’t qualify.
What this means in practice: if you’re moving to Portugal as a freelancer in 2026, you’ll likely pay normal Portuguese IRS rates, not the old NHR flat rate. Budget accordingly. Your contabilista can model what your effective rate will be.
Day-to-day compliance
A few ongoing obligations once atividade is open:
- Monthly or quarterly — invoicing via recibos verdes as you earn
- Quarterly — TSU contributions based on declared income
- Annually — IRS tax return (March–June of the following year)
- Annually — IVA returns if applicable
- Ongoing — any material changes to activity (new CAE codes, address changes) need to be filed
Most freelancers retain a contabilista for €50–€150 per month to handle all of this. Given the cost of getting it wrong — back-taxes, penalties, problems at mortgage application — it’s money well spent.
How it affects buying property
Three things to know as a self-employed buyer:
1. Mortgage eligibility is tighter. Banks typically ask for two complete tax years (IRS filings and social security contributions) before lending to self-employed borrowers. Your first year or two in Portugal, your mortgage options are limited.
2. Property can be held personally or via a company. For owner-occupiers, personal ownership is almost always simpler and cheaper. For investors with multiple properties, holding via a company starts to make sense — see our property-holding company guide.
3. Rental income is taxable. If you buy and let a Lisbon property, the rental income sits in your IRS return (either under the simplified regime for small volumes, or via organised accounting for larger portfolios). Alojamento Local (short-term rental) income has its own specific regime.
How we help
When our buyer clients are freelancers or self-employed, we flag the timing questions early — when to open atividade, when the mortgage window opens, whether to wait for a tax-year cycle before buying. We’ll introduce you to a contabilista we trust and coordinate with your mortgage broker so the timing works. The setup is yours to own; we just shorten the learning curve.
Book a free call to talk through your specific situation.