Your European company, registered in Portugal, trading in weeks
We incorporate, we open the doors at the bank, and we keep the filings on time — for owners who do not live here and do not intend to. Fixed fees, state charges shown separately, and a straight answer when Portugal is the wrong country for what you are building.
Four services, and the same answer every time: what it costs, how long, what can go wrong
We are a corporate and tax practice, not a company-formation mill. Most of our clients are businesses outside the European Union that need a real operating entity inside it — not a shelf company, not a nominee structure, and not something that falls over the first time a bank or a tax authority looks at it properly.
Company formation in Portugal
A registered Lda or Unipessoal Lda with its own tax number, beneficial ownership filed, activity codes that match what you actually do, and an accountant in place from the first day.
- NIF for every shareholder, obtained in parallel
- Empresa na Hora or Empresa Online, whichever is faster for you
- RCBE filed the same week, not eventually
- Share capital declared correctly, no bank account needed first
Corporate and tax support
A certified accountant is mandatory in Portugal from day one, trading or not. We take the whole calendar: monthly SAF-T, VAT, payroll, Modelo 22, the IES and the payments on account.
- Every statutory filing, submitted on time
- Payments on account forecast a year ahead, so they are budgeted
- A written split of who files what, agreed at the start
- Reminders before each deadline, not explanations after
Business launch and EU market entry
Entity, VAT and VIES registration, invoicing that satisfies Portuguese rules, first hire, and the sequence that gets you from incorporated to actually invoicing a European customer.
- VAT and VIES registration, with the OSS position checked
- Activity codes and invoicing software that will pass a review
- First employment contract, properly drafted
- Permanent establishment risk looked at before you hire abroad
Trademark and IP protection
A name you can defend, in Portugal through the INPI or across all twenty-seven member states through the EUIPO, with a clearance search before you file rather than a refusal after.
- Clearance search before anything is filed
- Class selection that covers what you will sell, not just what you sell now
- National or EU route, chosen on cost and on reach
- Oppositions and renewals tracked
Three ways to start, priced before you commit
Our fee is fixed and quoted in writing. State charges — the registry fee, the name certificate, the apostilles — are listed separately at cost, because bundling them is how a quote hides what you are actually paying for.
- NIF for up to two shareholders
- Incorporation, articles and registration
- RCBE filed within the week
- Activity codes and tax registration
- Accounting
- Bank introductions
- Everything in Formation only
- Certified accountant for twelve months
- Registered address that receives official post
- Every statutory filing for the year
- Bank file prepared and introductions made
- Payments on account forecast in advance
- Everything in Formation and first year
- VAT, VIES and OSS position set up
- Trademark clearance and filing
- First employment contract and payroll
- Permanent establishment review
- Group structure and withholding checked
Indicative fees for a straightforward structure with up to two individual shareholders. Corporate shareholders, trusts, regulated activities and more than four owners are quoted individually — and we will tell you why before we quote.
Six steps, in the order that actually works
Most delays in Portuguese incorporation are not caused by the registry. They are caused by doing things in the wrong order — chasing a bank before the company exists, or leaving the shareholders’ tax numbers until the articles are drafted.
You tell us the structure, where the owners live and what the business does. We come back with the plan, the fee and the state charges itemised. If Portugal is the wrong answer, this is where you hear it.
Each owner needs a Portuguese NIF before the company can exist. Non-EU residents obtain one through a fiscal representative. Documents issued abroad need an apostille and a certified translation, and those run on timetables we do not control — which is why we start here.
Articles executed, share capital subscribed, the company entered in the Conservatória do Registo Comercial. Same day at the counter through Empresa na Hora, or one to two days through Empresa Online.
The RCBE filed immediately, activity codes registered with the Autoridade Tributária, Social Security registration where there will be payroll. This is the week that decides whether the bank file moves or stalls.
The full pack assembled before anyone is approached, then two banks at once rather than one after another. A refusal costs you nothing except the time spent waiting for it alone.
Capital paid in, invoicing live, and every statutory deadline on a schedule your accountant owns in writing. You get a reminder before each one.
Portugal is not the cheapest rate in Europe. It is the best total cost for a company with people in it
Headline corporate rates are what gets compared, and they are rarely the largest number on the invoice. For any business that employs anyone, the cost of employing them dwarfs the tax on the profit — and that is where Portugal separates from the alternatives.
On a team of five, the gap in employer contributions is worth more each year than the entire difference between a 19% and a 25% corporate rate. We built a calculator that puts your own numbers through all three jurisdictions, including the Gulf.
What we take on, and what we turn away
Saying yes to everything is how advisory firms end up explaining, two years later, why a structure did not hold. We would rather lose the engagement at the quote than at the inspection.
- Operating companies with real customers, owned from outside the EU
- Groups putting a European subsidiary under a foreign parent
- Founders relocating with the business and needing both sides handled
- Madeira structures where the arithmetic genuinely works, and we show the arithmetic
- Companies already incorporated here that need the accounting and filings fixed
- Trademark protection filed before a product launch rather than after a dispute
- Nominee directors and shareholders of convenience
- Structures whose only purpose is a lower rate, with nothing underneath
- Residency and golden-visa work, which is not our practice
- Shelf companies sold as a shortcut past the tax numbers
- Clients who want the fee quoted before we know what the structure is
- Anything we would have to defend by hoping nobody looks
We publish the arithmetic, including when it argues against us
Twenty analysis pieces, sixteen calculators that run on your own numbers, and a digest every Tuesday marking what became law and what is still only a bill. None of it is gated and none of it asks for your email.
The Madeira 5% window shuts on 31 December 2026
Salary or dividends, and the election almost nobody makes
The document pack your case actually needs
- Company law and the sociedade por quotas: Código das Sociedades Comerciais.
- Corporate tax, rates and the participation exemption: Código do IRC, in particular articles 51 and 51-C.
- Beneficial ownership: the Registo Central do Beneficiário Efetivo, filed through the Portal RCBE.
- Simplified incorporation: the Empresa na Hora and Empresa Online regimes, operated by the Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado.
- Madeira International Business Centre: licence window to 31 December 2026, benefits running to 31 December 2033.
Questions we are asked every single week
How long does it take to register a company in Portugal?
The incorporation itself takes a day through Empresa na Hora, or one to two days online. What sets the real timetable is the tax number for each shareholder: non-EU residents need a fiscal representative, and documents issued abroad need an apostille and a certified translation. Budget three to six weeks from first contact to a registered company, and longer if the bank account must be open before you trade.
Do I need to live in Portugal to own a Portuguese company?
No. There is no residence requirement for shareholders or for a manager of a Lda. You do need a Portuguese tax number for every shareholder, a registered address in Portugal, and a certified accountant. What you should not do is run the company day to day from another country without advice, because management exercised abroad can make the company tax resident there instead.
What does it actually cost in the first year?
The state fee to incorporate is €360 at the counter or €220 online, plus €75 for a company name of your choosing. Everything after that is professional cost: a certified accountant is mandatory from day one whether or not you trade, you need a registered address that receives official post, and non-EU shareholders usually need fiscal representation. Our written quote separates the state charges from our fee so you can see the join.
What is the corporate tax rate in Portugal in 2026?
Nineteen per cent on the mainland, with 15% on the first €50,000 of taxable profit for small and medium enterprises, plus a municipal surtax of up to 1.5% that varies between councils. Madeira and the Azores apply 13.3%. A licensed company in the Madeira International Business Centre pays 5% on qualifying income, but that licensing window closes on 31 December 2026.
Can you open a Portuguese bank account for a company with foreign owners?
We prepare the file and make the introductions, and we are honest that nobody can guarantee an account. Portuguese banks apply enhanced due diligence to non-resident ownership as a matter of routine. What we can do is remove every reason to decline that is inside your control, approach the institutions most likely to accept your structure, and keep a payment institution running so the business is not blocked while the answer takes its time.
Do you work with clients outside the European Union?
That is most of our work. Brazil, the Gulf, India, the United States, the United Kingdom and the CIS. The questions that matter for a non-EU owner are different from the ones a Portuguese business asks, and so is the paperwork: fiscal representation, apostilles, beneficial ownership chains and withholding on the way out.
Send us the structure. You get a plan and a price, not a brochure
Where the owners live, what the business does, and when you need to be trading. We come back within one working day with the sequence, the fee, the state charges at cost, and the parts that are cheaper done yourself. If Portugal is the wrong country for what you are building, that is the first thing we will tell you.