Are offshore trusts back on the agenda? A recent move by the Portuguese government surprised the expat community by declaring the immediate removal of 15 tax jurisdictions from their offshore black list. The fundamental reason for such a move was the signing of bilateral Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEA).
Portugal has now signed TIEAs with the following countries: Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, States of Guernsey, Gibraltar, Cayman Islands, Isle of Man, Jersey, Liberia, Santa Lucia, St.
Read more →
This bulletin provides information on the types of medical insurance available in Portugal and outside for Portuguese residents. The immigration authorities require foreigners wishing to take out a resident’s permit to have health insurance protection. For EU citizens the National Health Service protection from their country of origin is normally adequate.
Read more →
Diário da República, 1st Series— Nº 178 — September 14, 2009
ECONOMY AND INNOVATION MINISTRY Decree-Law nº 228/2009 of September 14
[…]
ANNEX Republication of Decree-Law nº 39/2008 of March 7
CHAPTER I General provisions
Article 1 Object
This decree-law enacts legislation governing the setting up, running and functioning of tourism enterprises.
Read more →
Recent speculation and articles in the local (Algarve) press that Delaware may have been blacklisted by the EU caused a great deal of concern amongst Algarve property owners whose properties are held in Delaware companies. Now that the list has been published, with no mention of Delaware, the Algarve Resident requested clarification of the current situation from both EuroFinesco and The Sovereign Group.
Read more →
Only a few decades ago, bearer shares were the normal way to establish ownership rights in a company. When you incorporated a company, you received share certificates with no one’s name recorded on it. Whoever possessed the certificate controlled ownership.
A company that issues bearer shares has no shareholder list or register for those shares.
Read more →
Much has been said and written about the question if it wise and advisable to bring an off-shore company on-shore. The leading companies in the Algarve dealing with this have/had different opinions on this matter.
But I have the impression that some views are influenced by economic motives.
Below you will find info as published by Eurofinesco and Sovereign in local press releases.
Read more →
Offshore Property Companies - storm clouds on the horizon For many years, Offshore Property Companies have been a popular solution, although sometimes practices could be a bit “grey” in nature. Due to repeated problems with tax evasion, Portuguese legislation eventually changed, penalising these structures, writes Dennis Swing Greene.
Offshore Companies began to suffer an array of punitive measures that turned them untenable.
Read more →
CAR DOCUMENTS
Cars that were registered or changed ownership before November 2005 will have to documents, Titulo de Registo de Propriedade (blue) and Livrete (green). After November 2005 a new document “Documento Único” was introduced to substitute these too which will be done gradually as the cars are re-registered. The Police may ask for these to be shown at any time.
Read more →
Change in US registered companies
Following the recent changes in the Laws of Portugal we have been discussing the question of domicile of US companies with various professionals in Portugal and there is an opinion that Portugal could deem a company to be resident where its “effective centre of management” is located and thus blacklist companies where the directors are resident in a black-listed jurisdiction.
Read more →
