Corporate, tax and migration developments in Portugal, Madeira and the Azores. We started this because clients kept arriving with news that turned out to be a proposal, or a rule that had already been superseded, and nobody was writing the difference down.
A new issue every Tuesday, covering the week that closed the day before. Where a fortnight or a season is the honest unit, we say so in the heading rather than padding a thin week into a full one.
In force, signed, proposed, or still in negotiation. Half of what circulates about Portuguese law is a bill being reported as a rule, and the distinction decides whether you act on it.
Every item ends with the consequence for a company with foreign owners. If there is no consequence, we say that too rather than padding it.
Named and linked, so you can check us. Where two official sources disagree, we say so instead of picking the more convenient one.
The Council of Ministers approved the personal income tax cut on 17 September with the rates published bracket by bracket: the first six fall by 0.3 to 1.0 points, the top three are untouched, and the Prime Minister says it reaches payslips before Christmas. Plus the Azores Airlines sale and a slowdown in tourism revenue.
Nothing became law in these two weeks, which is the story: the tax cut was briefed but not decided. Around it, six and twelve month Euribor hit new highs, VAT receipts came in €926 million ahead, AIMA complaints halved on contested numbers, and MEO went down under a mass attack.
The Foreigners and Asylum Law cleared the Constitutional Court and was signed on 31 August, giving AIMA nine months to decide applications. The first full summer under the new nationality rules. The labour package that still has not landed. And the islands, where nothing changed except the days left on the Madeira window.