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Portuguese Taxation of Distributions from Trust Capital: A Critical Assessment

Portuguese Taxation of Distributions from Trust Capital: A Critical Assessment

How does a country adopt a law to tax the income of an entity that generally is not recognized under local law? In Portugal, there is room for improvement. The 2014 reform of the Portuguese Personal Income Tax ("P.I.T.") Code introduced certain taxing provisions that specifically address "fiduciary structures," the Portuguese term for trusts. Two separate categories of payments were established for purposes of imposing tax. Under the first category, all amounts paid or made available to a Portuguese tax resident are taxable. This includes capital distributions. Under the second category, gains realized by the taxpayer who formed the fiduciary structure are taxed at the time of a final distribution incident to the structure’s liquidation, unwinding, or termination. Other beneficiaries can receive liquidation distributions without suffering any tax. João Luís Araújo and Álvaro Silveira de Meneses of Telles Advogados, Porto and Lisbon, Portugal, suggest that solid arguments support the view that certain distributions should be seen as outside the scope of the P.I.T. Code, including (i) distributions of trust capital to the settlor during the ongoing existence of a trust and (ii) distributions to non-settlors that are akin to gifts.

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Portugal: A Race Towards Tax Competitiveness – The Non-Habitual Tax Resident Regime

As part of our series addressing favorable tax rules for non-domiciled resident individuals in various countries, Alexandra Courela and Susana A. Duarte of Abreu Advogados in Lisbon explain the Portuguese approach in extending tax benefits to new arrivals holding “Golden Visas” or who otherwise qualify for work-related visas for the performance of designated high value activities. Employment income from services performed in Portugal is taxed at a low rate and foreign source service income may be exempt from tax if certain conditions apply. Foreign-source plain vanilla investment income and gains may be exempt, too.

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