Taxation

Portugal is one of the most dangerous countries in the EU for foreign retirees

&amp;NewLine;<p>Portugal's regime for foreign pensioners&amp;comma; allowing a personal income tax rate &amp;lpar;IRS&amp;rpar; of 10 &amp;percnt;&amp;comma; is one of the most damaging to tax competition in the European Union &amp;lpar;EU&amp;rpar;&amp;comma; reveals a European study published today&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">Portugal is one of the most dangerous EU countries for foreign pensioners<&sol;h2>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p><strong>Portugal is one of the most dangerous EU countries for foreign pensioners<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>This is the conclusion of the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;taxobservatory&period;eu&sol;fr&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noreferrer noopener">European Union Tax Observatory<&sol;a> &amp;lpar;UE&amp;rpar;&amp;comma; an independent body on EU taxation which&amp;comma; in a report published today&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;today&amp;comma; states that "the most striking trend in European tax competition is the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;increase in the number of personal income tax regimes targeting foreigners"&amp;comma; from five in 1995 to 28 today&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>A provisional classification suggests that the most damaging are the Italian and Greek high-net-worth individual schemes&amp;comma; the Cypriot high-income scheme and the pension schemes of Cyprus&amp;comma; Greece and Portugal&amp;comma; says the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;European Tax Observatory&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>More specifically&amp;comma; depending on the structure&amp;comma; these schemes are of long duration and offer significant tax advantages, and are only&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;aimed at very high-income earners or do not result in any real economic activity in the&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;member state&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>In total, these preferential schemes now apply to over 200,000 beneficiaries in the EU, according to the independent body, which estimates the total tax cost to the European Union at €4&amp;comma;5 billion a year&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>"This sum is equivalent to the budget of the Erasmus program," compares the EU Tax Observatory in its&amp;period&amp;report;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>In the case of Portugal&amp;comma; the regime for non-habitual residents &amp;lpar;RNH&amp;rpar; was created in 2009 and applies to high value-added workers&amp;comma; but also to retirees receiving pensions from abroad&amp;comma;&amp;nbsp&amp;semi;<strong>including Portuguese nationals who have worked abroad and are returning to Portugal for their retirement.<&sol;strong>&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>Modified in 2012 and then in 2020&amp;comma; the plan <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;vivreauportugalconsulting&period;com&sol;demande-de-rnh&sol;" data-type&equals;"page" data-id&equals;"6823">RNH<&sol;a> provides for the application of an IRS rate of 10 per cent on foreign pension income, according to the most recent amendment;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>The status of non-habitual resident also gives workers in professions considered as high value-added the possibility of benefiting from a special rate of 20&amp;percnt;&amp;period; Each non-habitual resident can benefit from this tax regime for a maximum period of 10 years&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>In its report published today, the European Tax Observatory notes that "tax competition is increasingly taking the form of preferential or narrowly targeted tax regimes&amp;comma; in addition to general rate reductions" at EU&amp;period level;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>To reverse these trends&amp;comma; the framework suggests reforming the European Code of Conduct "to make it a binding instrument&amp;comma; and extending its mandate to&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;personal income tax as well as&amp;rsquo&amp;semi;non-preferential corporate tax regimes that lead to generally low levels of taxation of multinationals"&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>Furthermore&amp;comma; "in the absence of a coordinated approach &amp;&amp;num;8211&amp;semi; which is always the ideal solution &amp;&amp;num;8211&amp;semi; member states could consider unilateral taxation of their expatriates&amp;comma; which&amp;comma; under certain conditions&amp;comma; could mitigate the effects of preferential personal income tax regimes"&amp;comma; he further suggests&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;&amp;NewLine;<p>As you will have gathered, we believe that the aim of this report is to encourage EU countries that don't offer tax advantages for working people or retirees to introduce a sol&amp;period tax. This is similar to what the United States does for its nationals, who pay their income tax in the United States, regardless of their country of residence&amp;period;<&sol;p>&amp;NewLine;

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