A fixed fee, a written scope, and a person whose name you know
Most professional-services pages promise “a tailored approach” and leave it there. This one is specific, because the things that go wrong in cross-border work are specific: a bill that grows after the fact, an adviser quietly paid by the bank they recommended, a file passed between four people who each know a quarter of it. Here is exactly how we avoid each of those, and what we expect from you in return.
Five stages, and who is responsible at each one
The most common reason a cross-border formation slips by two months is not complexity. It is that nobody wrote down who was supposed to produce the apostilled corporate documents, so both sides waited. This table is the answer to that, and it is the same table we put in the engagement letter.
- Read your structure and identify what the case actually needs
- Flag anything that changes the route: non-EU shareholders, regulated activity, existing tax presence elsewhere
- Produce the written quote: scope, fee, public charges, realistic date
- Tell us who owns the business and where those people live
- Describe in plain words what the business actually sells, and to whom
- Say when you need to be invoicing
- Send a single checklist, specific to your jurisdictions, not a generic list
- Draft the powers of attorney so you do not have to travel
- Tell you exactly which documents need an apostille and which do not
- Obtain and legalise documents in your own country — only you can do this
- Sign the powers of attorney before a notary locally
- Answer the checklist completely rather than in instalments
- Obtain the NIF for every non-resident shareholder and act as fiscal representative where required
- Reserve the name, draft the articles, choose and justify the CAE activity codes
- Incorporate and register beneficial ownership, then deliver the certidão permanente
- Confirm the name choices and the share split
- Decide who will be gerente, and accept what that means in liability terms
- Nothing else — you do not need to be in Portugal
- Register for VAT and the correct Finanças declarations, and for Segurança Social if you will have staff
- Set up certified invoicing software and the SAF-T file so your first invoice is legal
- Prepare the bank file and introduce you — without taking a cent from the bank
- Attend the bank meeting or video call in person, as the bank requires
- Supply proof of the source of funds — the single most common cause of refusal
- Tell us before you hire, not after
- Keep the books, file VAT, prepare Modelo 22 and IES, and tell you before each deadline
- Warn you when a change in your business changes your tax position
- Give you a number to call that is answered by someone who knows your file
- Send documents monthly rather than in a shoebox each May
- Tell us about new markets, new people or new contracts as they happen
- Ask when something is unclear — that question is included in the fee
Three ways advisers charge. We only use one
How a professional is paid determines what they recommend. That is not cynicism, it is how incentives work, and it is worth understanding before you hire anyone — us included.
Fixed fee against a written scope
The number is agreed before work starts and does not move unless the scope moves. If we underestimate the job, that is our problem, not your invoice. You can compare our quote with another firm's on equal terms, because both are a single number for a defined piece of work.
Hourly rate
We quote an hourly rate only where honest scoping is impossible in advance — an ongoing dispute, a tax inspection whose shape nobody knows yet. Even then we set a ceiling and ask before passing it. Anywhere else, hourly billing hands you the risk of our inefficiency.
A percentage of your tax saving
Success fees on tax are common and we refuse them. They reward aggressive positions over sustainable ones, because the adviser is paid on the saving but does not share the exposure when it is challenged four years later. You would be buying our risk appetite, not our judgement.
- €360 — company incorporated through Empresa na Hora, at the counter, same day
- €220 — company incorporated online through Empresa Online, with digital signatures
- €25 — certidão permanente de registo comercial, one year of access
- €148.71 — national trademark at INPI, filed online, one class included (+€37.69 per extra class)
- €850 — EU trademark at EUIPO, one class across 27 member states (+€50 for the second, +€150 for each further class)
These are the public charges, not our fee. They appear as a separate line with the receipt attached. If a firm quotes you a single bundled number and will not break out what the state charges, you cannot tell what you are paying them — which is usually the point.
What a fixed fee includes — and what it honestly does not
Vagueness here is where most disputes start. So we write both columns down.
- Every question you ask about work inside the agreed scope, by email or phone
- Rework caused by our own error or omission
- Correspondence with Finanças, Segurança Social and the registry on matters we handled
- Telling you about a deadline before it arrives, every time
- A second opinion on a structure we proposed, if you want to test it
- A new entity, a new jurisdiction or a shareholder added after scoping
- Catching up accounting from before we took the file on
- Representation in a tax inspection or before a court
- Certified translations and notarial acts performed by third parties
- Work created by a decision you made against our written advice
Who does the work, and what they are allowed to sign
In Portugal some of this is not a matter of preference. Company accounts must be prepared and signed by a contabilista certificado registered with the Ordem dos Contabilistas Certificados; a filing signed by anyone else is not valid. We say who does what, because “our team” is not an answer.
Structure, residency and permanent-establishment analysis, treaty questions, the choice between mainland, Madeira and the Azores. This is the work you are actually hiring us for, and it is done by the person named in your engagement letter.
Named in the letter, with a named backupBookkeeping, VAT returns, SAF-T, Modelo 22 and IES, prepared and signed by a contabilista certificado. The same person signs every year, so the file has continuity and somebody remembers why a decision was made in 2024.
OCC-registered, legally requiredSearches and filings at INPI and EUIPO go through a registered agent we have worked with for years. We manage the file and the strategy; they execute the filing. You see both costs separately and you are never billed twice for the same step.
Cost shown separately, no markupNot our practice, and we do not pretend otherwise. We will name a firm that does it properly and take nothing for the introduction. Advisers who claim to cover corporate, tax, migration and real estate under one roof are usually subcontracting three of them silently.
No referral fee, in either directionResponse times, languages and where your file lives
Every message, including the ones that are only a question. If the answer needs research, you get an acknowledgement with the date you will have it rather than silence. Lisbon hours, which overlap the working day in most of Europe, the Gulf, Brazil and the east coast of the United States.
Spoken and written, by the same people. Documents for Portuguese authorities are prepared in Portuguese regardless of the language we use with you, and we translate what you need to understand rather than handing you a filing in a language you cannot read.
Corporate documents, filings and accounts are delivered to you as you go, not held as leverage. If you ever leave us, you leave with a complete file and we hand over to your next adviser properly. A firm that makes departure painful is telling you something about how it retains clients.
If a deadline is at risk, if a bank is going to say no, if a structure you like will not survive scrutiny — you hear it while there is still time to act, not in a quarterly summary. This is the single habit that separates advisers who are useful from advisers who are pleasant.
What we decline, and why saying so is part of the service
A firm that accepts everything is either very large or not reading the work. We are neither, so here is the boundary.
- An operating business that needs a real European entity with real substance
- A Portuguese company whose accounting and filings need repairing
- A structure where you want to see the arithmetic rather than hear assertions
- A European launch that has to be invoicing by a specific date
- A plan that needs testing against permanent-establishment risk nobody budgeted for
- Nominee directors or shareholders to disguise who actually controls the company
- Structures whose only purpose is a lower headline rate, with nothing underneath
- Shelf companies sold as a way around tax-number requirements
- Any arrangement that depends on a Portuguese authority not noticing something
- Clients who want a price before anyone has understood the structure
The last one surprises people, so it is worth explaining. A quote given before the structure is understood is a guess, and a guess that turns out low becomes a change order three weeks later. We would rather spend a day understanding the case and give you a number we will hold to. That day costs you nothing.
What people ask before signing anything
Do you charge by the hour?
No. Every engagement is quoted as a fixed fee against a written scope, agreed before any work starts. Hourly billing moves the risk of a slow month onto you and gives us an incentive to be slow, which is the wrong incentive to build a long relationship on. The only time we quote a rate rather than a fee is open-ended litigation support, where nobody can honestly scope the work in advance.
What happens if the work turns out to be bigger than the quote?
If the extra work comes from something we should have spotted at scoping, we absorb it. If it comes from something new on your side, a shareholder added late or a licence nobody mentioned, we tell you before we do it and quote the difference separately. You never receive an invoice for work you did not approve.
Do you take commission from banks or other providers?
No. We do not accept introducer fees, referral commission or revenue share from banks, payment providers, accountants or landlords. Our only income is the fee you agree with us. This matters more than it sounds: an adviser paid by a bank will steer you to that bank regardless of whether it fits your business.
Who actually does the work on my file?
A named person, identified in the engagement letter, with a named backup. Accounts are prepared and signed by a contabilista certificado registered with the Ordem dos Contabilistas Certificados, because Portuguese law requires it. Trademark filings go through a registered agent. You will not be handed to a different account manager every quarter.
Are public fees included in your quote?
They are listed separately and billed at cost, with the receipt. A company formed through Empresa na Hora costs €360 at the counter; we pass that through unchanged. We do not mark up government charges, and we tell you when a step is cheap enough to do yourself.
Will you tell me if Portugal is the wrong answer?
Yes, and it is usually the first thing we say when it is true. Portugal is a good fit for a business with real operations, real people and real substance in Europe. It is a poor fit for a structure whose only purpose is a lower headline rate. We would rather lose the fee than build something that collapses at the first audit.
Test all of this with one email
Send us the structure and see what comes back: a scope, a fixed fee, the public charges at cost and a date we will hold to. If we think Portugal is wrong for you, that is what the reply will say. Either way it costs nothing and commits you to nothing.