IFICI in Portugal: who gets the 20% rate, which route fits you, and how to apply

Portugal closed NHR to newcomers on 1 January 2024. The same budget law brought in IFICI, and that’s the regime you can apply for if you move now.^[1] If you became resident in 2026, your IFICI request is due on Portal das Finanças by 15 January 2027.^[2]

IFICI is much narrower than NHR. To get it, your work in Portugal has to fit one of seven routes. Most people qualify through a skilled job or their own company in an activity on the government’s list, and startups, researchers and university teachers have routes of their own. A pension won’t get you in. A remote job for a company abroad usually won’t either. And if you’re setting up a company, picking the wrong activity code can cost you the 20% before you’ve even moved.

The good news: the rules are clear, and most people who qualify get in one of a few ways. Below, we go through who qualifies, which route fits you, what the 20% actually covers, and the dates you can’t miss if you want all ten years.

Setting up a company in Portugal? Our guide to IFICI with your own company walks you through the founder’s route step by step. This one covers every route.

In this guide13 sections

1. What is IFICI, and how is it different from NHR?
2. Who qualifies for IFICI?
3. Which IFICI route fits you?
4. What income gets IFICI's 20%?
5. What happens to your foreign income, pensions and dividends?
6. How and when do you apply for IFICI?
7. What happens if you miss the 15 January deadline?
8. How do you keep IFICI each year?
9. Can you get IFICI on a D7, D8 or D2, or as an EU citizen?
10. What should you check before you form your company?
11. How does IFICI compare with NHR, IRS Jovem and Spain's Beckham Law?
12. What do people most often get wrong about IFICI?
13. How do you find out if you qualify?

What is IFICI, and how is it different from NHR?

IFICI is the tax break Portugal has offered new residents since 2024. Officially it’s an incentive for scientific research and innovation. In practice, it taxes your qualifying Portuguese work income at a flat 20% for ten years in a row and exempts most of your foreign income.^[3][4]

The full name is Incentivo Fiscal à Investigação Científica e Inovação, and it gives you two things:

• A 20% rate on your qualifying work income. That’s your net salary or self-employment income from the work that qualifies you. Nothing else gets the 20%.^[3]
• An exemption on most foreign income. Foreign salary, business income, investments, rent and capital gains aren’t taxed in Portugal. They’re still added in when Portugal works out the rate on your other income, though.^[4]

“So it’s NHR with a new name?”

Not really. Almost anyone moving to Portugal could get NHR, retirees included. For IFICI you need to do qualifying work on one of seven routes, and your foreign pension is taxed on the normal scale.^[3][5]

If you already have NHR, you keep it for the rest of your ten years.^[1] But you can’t swap it for IFICI later: anyone who’s ever had NHR is ruled out.^[3]

Who qualifies for IFICI?

You need to pass four gates and do qualifying work on one of the seven routes. The gates are the same for everyone, whatever your nationality or visa.^[3]

You pass the gates if four things are true:

• You become a Portuguese tax resident. The year you become resident is year one of the ten.
• You weren’t resident in Portugal in any of the previous five years. An old Portuguese address on your tax record can count against you.
• You’ve never had NHR and never opted into Programa Regressar, the tax scheme for returning former residents.
• You haven’t used IFICI before. It’s once in a lifetime.^[3]

Not sure what your tax record shows for the last five years? Check it before you plan anything else. A Portugal tax consultation with a certified accountant is the quick way to find out.

“Who checks my application?”

Two different offices check it. The agency in charge of your route checks the work itself, and the tax authority checks the rest, especially your residence.^[2][5]

Which IFICI route fits you?

For most people it comes down to two options: a qualified job with an employer in Portugal, or being the paid manager of your own Portuguese company. Both go through the recognised-activity route, which has no export test. The other routes are for more specific situations.^[3][6]

“I’ll be an employee in Portugal”

You need an employment contract with an employer in Portugal, and both the job and the employer have to qualify. A services contract doesn’t count.^[5] Most employees get in through one of two routes.

The recognised-activity route (route d in the law) is the one most employees use. You qualify on it if three things are true:

• Your employer’s main activity is on the official list that IAPMEI, the state’s small-business agency, and AICEP, its trade and investment agency, publish.^[6][7]
• Your job is a qualified one on the same notice: managers and directors, engineers and scientists, IT specialists, doctors, university teachers, finance specialists and technicians among them.
• You hold at least a level 5 qualification on the European framework, which is a post-school qualification a step below a degree.^[6]

The exporter route (route c) is the harder one. You qualify on it if three things are true:

• Your profession is on the highly qualified list: company directors and managers, engineers and scientists, IT specialists, doctors and university teachers.^[2]
• You hold a doctorate, or a degree plus three years’ documented experience.^[2]
• Your employer’s main activity is on a narrower list (mining, manufacturing, IT and communications, some research, higher education and health), and it exports at least 50% of its turnover in the year you start or in one of the two years before. Your employer confirms all this on Portal das Finanças by 15 March.^[2][3]

“I’m setting up my own company”

You can qualify as the paid manager (gerente) of your own Portuguese company, on the recognised-activity route. The tax authority’s own guidance confirms this works even if you’re the only owner and the only manager. Just owning shares isn’t enough, though: you need the manager’s role.^[5]

• Your company’s main activity code (CAE) has to be on the list. A secondary code doesn’t count.^[7]
• Software and IT services (division 62) are on it, and so are architecture, engineering and research (divisions 71 and 72).^[6]
• Management consultancy isn’t on it. Neither is training.
• There’s no export test on this route, and IAPMEI will check a brand-new company that has no accounts yet.^[5]
• Only your pay as gerente gets the 20%. It counts as employment income, so you’re paid through payroll.^[8]

“My company is a startup”

If your company is certified as a startup, you can qualify through it as an employee or as a member of its board (route f).^[3] You apply for the certificate online, from Startup Portugal.

Your company can be certified if, among other conditions, it’s a company (a sole trader can’t be one), it’s been active for under ten years, it has fewer than 250 staff and turnover up to €50 million, its seat is in Portugal, and it passes an innovation test or holds Startup Portugal’s prior declaration.^[9] This route doesn’t use the activity list at all, so it’s your backup if your company’s activity isn’t on it.

“I teach at a university or work in research”

Route a covers higher-education teaching and scientific research in the national science system, checked by FCT, the science foundation. Route e covers research and development staff whose costs qualify for Portugal’s R&D tax incentive.^[3]

The other routes

Two more routes exist: qualified jobs and board seats under contractual investment benefits (route b, checked by AICEP), and work in the Azores and Madeira under regional rules (route g).^[3]

“I work remotely for a company abroad”

Unfortunately, that job on its own won’t get you in. The routes need an employer whose activity is on the list. And any work you do while living in Portugal counts as Portuguese income, whoever pays you, so the foreign-income exemption doesn’t cover your salary either.^[10] What changes this is a Portuguese employer, or a company of your own.

“I freelance on green receipts”

Freelancing on green receipts (recibos verdes) doesn’t fit any route. The routes need an employment contract or a seat on a company’s board, and a sole trader can’t be certified as a startup.^[5][9] Setting up a company and paying yourself as its gerente is how you get in.

What income gets IFICI’s 20%?

Only your net salary or self-employment income from the work that qualifies you. Any other Portuguese income is taxed the normal way, and most of your foreign income is exempt.^[3][5]

“How much does the 20% save me?”

It depends on how much you earn. Portugal’s normal scale starts at 12.5% and reaches 48% on taxable income above €86,634 in 2026, with a solidarity surcharge of 2.5% above €80,000.^[11][12] So on a modest salary, you’d actually pay less than 20% on the normal scale.

For an employee in 2026, IFICI starts paying off at about €32,500 a year. The more you earn above that, the more you save. Run your own figures in our Portugal income tax calculator.

In any year the normal scale works out cheaper, you can choose it instead.^[3] And you still pay Social Security on top of the 20%, because IFICI only changes your income tax.

What happens to your foreign income, pensions and dividends?

Most of your foreign income is exempt, though it still counts when Portugal sets the rate on your other income. Watch out for three exceptions.^[4][5]

• Foreign pensions aren’t exempt. They’re taxed on Portugal’s normal scale, which is why IFICI rarely suits a retiree.^[5]
• Income from a blacklisted jurisdiction is taxed at 35%. The tax authority’s own example is dividends from a company in the United Arab Emirates.^[4][5]
• Dividends from your own Portuguese company get neither the 20% nor the exemption. They’re Portuguese income, taxed under the normal rules for dividends. So if you only pay yourself in dividends, IFICI doesn’t save you anything.

Your exempt foreign income still goes on your annual return every year, even though you pay no Portuguese tax on it.

If you invest abroad, the exemption can be worth more to you than the 20% rate. It covers gains on foreign shares and funds. If you’re leaving Italy with a large portfolio, see how this works with Italy’s exit tax.

How and when do you apply for IFICI?

You file the request on Portal das Finanças by 15 January of the year after you become resident. The agency in charge of your route reports back by 15 February, and you’ll see your status by 31 March.^[2]

“When does my residence year start?”

Updating your NIF to your Portuguese address makes you tax resident in Portugal, so time it with your move. You also become resident from your first day here if you spend more than 183 days in Portugal that year, or keep a home here you plan to live in, whatever your NIF says.^[13] You report a change of residence within 60 days.^[14]

You can only file once the tax authority has you down as resident.^[2] So if your route depends on a company or a job, get it set up before you move and update your NIF. Our NIF address update service changes the address for you.

What you file with the request

• Proof of your role: your employment contract, or for a board seat, an up-to-date certidão permanente, the company’s online registry certificate, showing your appointment.
• Proof of your qualifications.
• Your company’s declaration that the activity requirements are met, on routes b to e.
• Anything else the checking body asks for.^[5]

If something’s missing, you won’t be refused straight away. They’ll ask you for it, so reply quickly.^[5]

“When does my employer withhold at 20%?”

As soon as you show payroll proof that you’ve applied. Until your status comes through, that withholding is an advance, and it’s settled on your annual return.^[5]

What happens if you miss the 15 January deadline?

You can still apply, but the 20% only starts from the year you file. The ten years still count from your residence year, so each year you’re late is a year you lose.^[3][5]

The tax authority’s own example: someone resident in 2025 who files on 10 January 2029 gets six years, 2029 to 2034.^[5] To get your residence year too, you have to file by 15 January.

How do you keep IFICI each year?

To get the 20% in any year, two things have to be true that year: you’re tax resident at some point, and you earn income from qualifying work.^[3]

• Changing jobs? Start the new qualifying activity within six months of the old one ending and the benefit carries on.^[3]
• Longer gap? You lose the benefit from the date the old activity ended. But IFICI itself isn’t gone: you can pick it up again in any remaining year of the ten, once you’re resident and earning qualifying income.^[3][5]
• Something changed? Report it on Portal das Finanças by 15 January of the following year. A new employer or a different checking body means a new request.^[2][5]
• Keep the proof of your activity and your income for every year, and show it when the tax authority asks.^[2]

If you’re a founder and don’t pay yourself a salary one year, there’s nothing for the 20% to apply to that year.

Can you get IFICI on a D7, D8 or D2, or as an EU citizen?

Yes, on the same terms. IFICI depends on your tax residence and your work. Your visa only matters for whether your setup fits the terms of your residence permit.

Your visa and your tax regime are handled by different authorities, so check both before you set up a company. If you’re not sure how a company of your own fits with your permit, start with a free call with us.

What should you check before you form your company?

Check the activity codes, which one is your main code, and your role as paid gerente. All three go into the company’s registration, and the codes are hard to change once the company is set up.

Plan for IFICI before you set up the company. Only the application itself waits until January. If you use our company formation service, say at the start that IFICI matters to you, so the codes are checked against the list before anything is filed.

The codes also have to match the business you actually run. If you pick a listed code but your company does something else, it won’t stand up when IAPMEI checks.

How does IFICI compare with NHR, IRS Jovem and Spain’s Beckham Law?

In short: NHR is closed to newcomers, you can’t use IRS Jovem after IFICI, and Spain charges 24% on salary where IFICI charges 20%.

	IFICI	IRS Jovem	Beckham Law (Spain)
Who it’s for	New residents in a qualifying activity	You, if you’re 35 or under	People moving to Spain for a listed reason
What you get on work income	20% on qualifying income	A partial exemption	24% on salary up to €600,000
Foreign income	Mostly exempt, pensions taxed	Normal rules	Mostly outside Spanish tax
How long	10 years from your residence year	Your first 10 years of earning	6 tax years
How you join	Request by 15 January after your residence year	Chosen on your annual return	Within 6 months of your Spanish Social Security start

IRS Jovem doesn’t rule you out of IFICI. It works the other way: once you’ve had IFICI, you can’t use IRS Jovem afterwards.^[5][15] If you’re 35 or under, weigh the two before you file.

The Spanish figures come from Spain’s income tax law and its regulation.^[16][17] For the Spanish side in full, read IFICI vs Spain’s Beckham Law.

What do people most often get wrong about IFICI?

Most mistakes come from treating IFICI like NHR, or from following advice meant for a different route.

• “My company’s profit is taxed at 20%.” Only your pay as gerente gets the 20%. Your company pays corporate tax on its profit, and dividends you take go on the normal rules.
• “All my foreign income is tax-free.” Your foreign pension is taxed normally, blacklisted jurisdictions pay 35%, and your exempt income still pushes up the rate on your other income.^[4]
• “It’s backdated, so filing late doesn’t matter.” It covers your residence year only if you file by 15 January. File late and you lose the years in between.^[3]
• “IRS Jovem rules me out.” It’s the reverse: IFICI rules out IRS Jovem afterwards.^[15]
• “My own company needs 50% exports.” That test belongs to the exporter route. The recognised-activity route has no export test.^[3][5]
• “My remote job for a US company counts.” Work you do from Portugal is Portuguese-source income, and the routes need an employer whose activity qualifies.^[10]
• “Any listed code will do.” It has to be your company’s main activity.^[7]

How do you find out if you qualify?

Get an eligibility check first, before you sign a contract or set up a company, while you can still change the details.

Frequently asked questions

Is IFICI the same as NHR?

No. For IFICI you need qualifying work, which NHR never asked for. NHR closed to new applicants in 2024, and IFICI taxes your foreign pension on the normal scale.

What is the IFICI tax rate?

20% on your net qualifying work income, for ten consecutive years. Most foreign income is exempt, foreign pensions are taxed normally, and blacklisted jurisdictions pay 35%.

When is the IFICI deadline?

15 January of the year after you become resident. If you became resident in 2026, that’s 15 January 2027. Your status shows by 31 March.

Can I still apply if I missed 15 January?

Yes. The 20% then runs from the year you file, for whatever’s left of the ten years, which still count from your residence year.

Can I get IFICI with my own company?

Yes, as its paid gerente, if its main activity is on the list. That’s the recognised-activity route, with no export test. Only your gerente pay gets the 20%.

Does management consultancy qualify for IFICI?

No. Management consultancy and training aren’t on the activity list. Software, IT, engineering and research are.

Do remote workers qualify for IFICI?

Not through a job for an employer abroad on its own. The routes need an employer whose activity qualifies, and work you do from Portugal is Portuguese income. A Portuguese employer or your own company can change that.

Can freelancers get IFICI?

Not on green receipts. None of the routes covers a freelancer billing their own clients. Forming a company and becoming its paid gerente is the way in.

Are foreign pensions covered by IFICI?

No. A foreign pension is taxed on Portugal’s normal scale, and a pension on its own won’t get you into IFICI.

Do I need a degree for IFICI?

Not on every route. A qualified job on the recognised-activity route needs a level 5 qualification, below a degree. The exporter route needs a doctorate, or a degree plus three years’ experience.

Can I have IFICI and IRS Jovem?

IRS Jovem is closed to you once you’ve had IFICI. The other way round works: having had IRS Jovem doesn’t stop you getting IFICI, so if you’re 35 or under, weigh the two before you file.

I had NHR before. Can I get IFICI?

No. Anyone who has ever had NHR is excluded, and so is anyone who opted into Programa Regressar.

Sources and how we checked

We read every law and guidance note below in Portuguese or Spanish on the official sites, and checked each date and figure against them. The €32,500 switch point and the salary figures come from our own income tax calculator, for an employee on 2026 rates. This guide isn’t tax advice: whether IFICI works for you depends on your facts and on the checks the tax authority and your route’s checking body make after you file.

1. NHR closed to new applicants, existing holders keep their years, IFICI created: Portugal’s 2024 State Budget law (Lei 82/2023, 29 December 2023), articles 236 and 263, Portal das Finanças copy.
2. The filing date, the 15 February, 15 March and 31 March dates, the highly qualified professions, the exporter-route activity list, the qualification levels, change reports and record keeping: Portaria 352/2024/1, the IFICI procedure order, as amended by Portaria 52-A/2025/1.
3. The IFICI law: the seven routes, the 20% rate, ten years, the five-year test, the NHR and Programa Regressar exclusions, the six-month rule, resuming, late registration and the once-only rule: Tax Benefits Statute, article 58-A, Portal das Finanças consolidated text, read 4 November 2026.
4. The foreign-income exemption (categories A, B, E, F and G), counted to set the rate, and the blacklist rule: Portuguese income tax code (CIRS), article 81, paragraphs 4 and 5.
5. The tax authority’s IFICI guide and questions, including foreign pensions, the 35% example, services contracts, single-member companies, new companies, late filing, changes, withholding and IRS Jovem: Ofício Circulado 20276/2025, 26 February 2025.
6. The recognised-activity route: the qualified jobs and the level 5 qualification (Annex A), and the activity list (Annex B): IAPMEI, Aviso 4812/2025/2, 20 February 2025.
7. The listed code has to be the company’s main activity: IAPMEI, Aviso 9709/2025/2, 10 April 2025.
8. A manager’s pay is employment income: Portuguese income tax code (CIRS), article 2.
9. What counts as a startup: Startup law (Lei 21/2023), article 2, Portal das Finanças consolidated text.
10. Work done in Portugal is Portuguese-source income: Portuguese income tax code (CIRS), article 18.
11. The 2026 normal scale, 12.5% to 48%: Portuguese income tax code (CIRS), article 68, as worded by the 2026 State Budget law.
12. The solidarity surcharge: Portuguese income tax code (CIRS), article 68-A.
13. When you become a tax resident: Portuguese income tax code (CIRS), article 16.
14. The 60 days to report a change of residence: General Tax Law, article 19.
15. IRS Jovem, and its exclusion of anyone who has had IFICI: Portuguese income tax code (CIRS), article 12-B.
16. The Beckham Law’s routes and the 24% rate up to €600,000: Spain’s personal income tax law (Ley 35/2006), article 93, BOE consolidated text.
17. The six tax years and the six months to opt in from your Social Security start date: Spain’s income tax regulation (Real Decreto 439/2007), articles 113 to 120, BOE consolidated text.