Tax Havens

Portugal levies high withholding tax for investments flowing from tax haven countries (list is maintained by Portugal.

Portugal maintains an official blacklist of countries and jurisdictions considered for legal and tax purposes as tax havens. The purpose of this list is countering tax avoidance and evasion. Many of these countries in the list have double taxation agreements and committed to exchange of information under OECD tax exchange.

The disadvantages of investing from a blacklisted country for golden visa are..

1. Funds domiciled in tax havens attract higher taxes. Higher withholding tax, 35% tax rate, on capital income (interests and dividends) deriving from investment funds.
2. Increased scrutiny of banking and business transactions and possibly rejections.
3. Difficulty in getting loans from Lenders in Portugal
4. Aggravated municipal property tax of 7% on property owned by entities from blacklisted tax havens. The stamp duty rate for property owners and companies resident in tax havens pay higher 7.5% (instead of 1%).
5. No NHR Benefits – Non-habitual residents (NHRs) status holders do not benefit from personal income tax exemption on interests, dividends, capital gains, income from immovable property (rents), royalties, intellectual property income and business income) if: these are sourced from black-listed jurisdictions. Therefore, taxation of such income will be subject to the normal rates or to the 35% rate depending on the type of income earned by the NHR status holder.

P.S: Carefully note there are countries that run citizenship by investment programs in the blacklist. This could affect those who acquired CBI passport then investing in Portugal golden visa.

Blacklisted Jurisdiction	Country / Territory	Double Taxation / Exchange
American Samoa	Unincorporated and unorganized U.S. territory	Portugal has signed an Agreement to Avoid Double Taxation with the country.
Anguilla	British Overseas Territory	–
Antigua and Barbuda	Country	–
Aruba	Constituent Country	–
Bahamas	Country
Bahrain	Country	Portugal has signed an Agreement to Avoid Double Taxation with the country.
Barbados	Country	Portugal has signed an Agreement to Avoid Double Taxation with the country.
Belize	Country	–
Bermuda	British Overseas Territory	Portugal has signed an agreement of exchange of tax information with the territory.
Bolivia	Country	–
British Virgin Islands	British Overseas Territory	–
Brunei	Country	–
Cayman Islands	British Overseas Territory	Portugal has signed an agreement of exchange of tax information with the territory.
Christmas Island	Australian external territory	–
Cocos (Keeling) Islands	Australian external territory	–
Cook Islands	Country	–
Costa Rica	Country	–
Djibouti	Country	–
Dominica	Country	–
Eswatini	Country	–
Falkland Islands	British Overseas Territory	–
Fiji	Country	–
French Polynesia	Overseas country and collectivity of France	Portugal has signed an Agreement to Avoid Double Taxation with the country but the agreement does not include this territory.
Gambia	Country	–
Gibraltar	British Overseas Territory	Portugal has signed an agreement of exchange of tax information with the territory.
Grenada	Country	–
Guam	Unincorporated and organized U.S. territory	Portugal has signed an Agreement to Avoid Double Taxation with the country.
Guernsey	Bailiwick	Portugal has signed an agreement of exchange of tax information with the territory.
Guyana	Country	–
Honduras	Country	–
Hong Kong, China	Special Administrative Region	Portugal has signed an Agreement to Avoid Double Taxation with the territory.
Iran (Qeshm Island)	County	Only the county of Qeshm, more specifically the island of Qeshm has been blacklisted by the Portuguese government.
Isle of Man	Crown dependency	Portugal has signed an agreement of exchange of tax information with the territory. The Isle of Man was briefly whitelisted between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2018.
Jamaica	Country	–
Jersey	Bailiwick	Portugal has signed an agreement of exchange of tax information with the territory.
Jordan	Country	–
Kiribati	Country	–
Kuwait	Country	Portugal has signed an Agreement to Avoid Double Taxation with the country.
Labuan	Malaysian Federal Territory	–
Lebanon	Country	–
Liberia	Country	–
Liechtenstein	Country	–
Maldives	Country	–
Marshall Islands	Country	–
Mauritius	Country	–
Mauritius	Country	–
Monaco	Country	–
Monaco	Country	–
Montserrat	British Overseas Territory	–
Nauru	Country	–
Netherlands Antilles	Constituent Country	The Netherlands Antilles were dissolved in 2010.
Niue	Country	–
Norfolk Island	Australian external territory	–
Northern Mariana Islands	Commonwealth	–
Oman	Country	Portugal has signed an Agreement to Avoid Double Taxation with the country.
Other Pacific Islands	Non-specified	The Portuguese Government considered “other Pacific Islands” all the islands in the Pacific Ocean not mentioned in the list.
Palau	Country	–
Panama	Country	–
Pitcairn Islands	British Overseas Territory	–
Puerto Rico	U.S. Commonwealth and Unincorporated and organized U.S. territory	Portugal has signed an Agreement to Avoid Double Taxation with the country.
Qatar	Country	Portugal has signed an Agreement to Avoid Double Taxation with the country.
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha	British Overseas Territory	–
Saint Kitts and Nevis	Country	–
Saint Lucia	Country	–
Saint Pierre and Miquelon	Overseas collectivity of France	Portugal has signed an Agreement to Avoid Double Taxation with the country but the agreement does not include this territory.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Country	–
Samoa	Country	–
San Marino	Country	Portugal has signed an Agreement to Avoid Double Taxation with the country.
Seychelles	Country	–
Solomon Islands	Country	–
Svalbard and Jan Mayen	Unincorporated internal area of Norway	Portugal has signed an Agreement to Avoid Double Taxation with the country but the agreement does not include these territories.
Tokelau	Dependent territory of New Zealand	–
Tonga	Country	–
Trinidad and Tobago	Country	–
Turks and Caicos Islands	British Overseas Territory	–
Tuvalu	Country	–
United Arab Emirates	Country	Portugal has signed an Agreement to Avoid Double Taxation with the country.
United States Virgin Islands	Unincorporated and organized U.S. territory	–
Uruguay	Country	Portugal has signed an Agreement to Avoid Double Taxation with the country. Uruguay was briefly whitelisted between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2018.
Vanuatu	Country	–
Yemen	Country	–

Source: Ministerial Order n. 150/2004 of 13 February, issued by the Portuguese Ministry of Finance