Taxation of non-habitual residents: the Portuguese case

Abstract

In 2009, a privileged tax system to attract high value-added foreigners and thus promote investment and raise the skill levels in the workforce was incorporated into the Portuguese legal system.

In spite of not being a pioneering experience in the field of taxation, it has revealed  to  be  truly  competitive  when  compared  to  the  other applicable systems in the European Union, namely in terms of scope, criteria and duration of application.

The inevitable interaction between this system and the Conventions to avoid Double Taxation and the principle of non-discrimination has led to a cross-cutting analysis and enabled a global and systematic assessment of the underlying benefits.

Possible constraints as to the Conventions to avoid Double Taxation, although real and of difficult elimination, sometimes result in ·extremely auspicious situations for the beneficiaries, as it is the case of double exemption for foreign-sourced pensions.

In addition to this, we consider that the fact of .shaping a clear tax benefit and thus promoting derogation from the general rule of VAT taxation does not jeopardize the constitutional principle of non­discrimination.