IFICI 2026: Who Can Benefit, Depending on Your Country of Origin?
Audrey Marques
Consultant in business establishment & company formation in Portugal
Founder of Business Portugal, Audrey supports French-speaking entrepreneurs in setting up their company in Portugal and opening their bank account. She coordinates a network of partners (accountant, tax adviser) and points clients to the right contacts, she is neither an accountant, nor a tax adviser, nor a lawyer.
The question keeps coming up in expat groups: "Am I eligible for IFICI because I am French, Belgian or Swiss?" Framed that way, it rests on a misconception that must be corrected immediately. IFICI, the Portuguese tax regime that succeeded the RNH, is not a benefit granted by nationality or by country of origin. It is a regime reserved for tax residents of Portugal who carry on an activity considered eligible. In other words, what opens the door is not where you come from: it is genuinely becoming a tax resident in Portugal, with a qualified and recognised professional profile. Your country of origin does play a role, but elsewhere: on the departure side, in how you tax-exit your current country. This article untangles the two subjects, and states up front that detailed tax matters are the domain of a tax specialist: Business Portugal guides you and connects you, without standing in their place.
IFICI does not depend on nationality, but on residence and activity
The central point is simple and often misunderstood. IFICI is a Portuguese tax resident regime. To fall under it, you must first become a tax resident in Portugal, that is, move the real centre of your life there, then carry on an activity that falls within the eligible scope. French, Belgian, Swiss or any other nationality is not part of the equation: a Portuguese national returning home after years abroad and a French national settling in Lisbon are judged on the same criteria, activity and residence, not on their passport.
The scope of eligible activities is deliberately focused on active, qualified profiles: researchers, highly qualified professions within eligible companies, notably export-oriented ones, research and development functions, roles within certified startups. It is a regime designed to attract skills and added value, not to reward a passive status. A crucial point, and a frequent source of disappointment: IFICI excludes pensioners. A project built around a pension does not fall under this regime, contrary to what the former RNH suggested in some of its versions.
Another common misunderstanding: you do not "tick" IFICI on an arrival form. Benefiting from the regime requires prior recognition of the activity by the competent authorities: it is never automatic. You must document the eligible nature of the role, the employer or structure, and respect the application timeline. It is precisely this absence of automaticity that makes guidance useful, and that explains why testing your eligibility beforehand avoids building a project on a false assumption.
Why your country of origin still matters: the departure question
If IFICI does not depend on your country of origin, that country does determine how you tax-exit your starting point, and that is where the real stakes lie. For a French resident, the analysis begins with article 4 B of the French General Tax Code (CGI), which defines tax residence against factual criteria: home or main place of stay, exercise of the main professional activity, centre of economic interests. Residence never comes down to a count of 183 days or to a declared address: it is the reality of your life that decides. As long as these criteria tie you to France, you remain a French resident, with or without Portuguese IFICI.
Departure can also trigger specific mechanisms depending on the profile. The exit tax under article 167 bis of the CGI targets unrealised gains on important shareholdings at the time of the tax domicile transfer: a founder or significant shareholder settling in Portugal must examine it. Good news for those targeting Portugal, a European Union Member State: a transfer to the EU or the EEA opens an automatic payment deferral. On the French side, the France-Portugal tax treaty, signed on 14 January 1971, in force since 18 November 1972 and amended by the protocol of 25 August 2016, frames how taxation is allocated between the two States and must be read alongside your situation.
All these parameters depend on the country of origin, not on IFICI itself. An entrepreneur coming from Belgium, Switzerland or elsewhere will have a different departure framework, with its own residence-exit rules. That is why the right method is to handle two distinct questions: am I eligible for IFICI in Portugal, and how does my tax exit from my current country work. The two are prepared together but should not be conflated.
Eligible profiles, excluded profiles: getting the diagnosis right
On the eligible side are the profiles the regime seeks to attract: a researcher recruited by an eligible centre or company, a highly qualified executive joining an export-oriented company, a research and development engineer, a profile joining a certified startup. The common denominator is the effective exercise of a qualified activity, within a recognised structure, from Portugal and as a Portuguese tax resident. The legal form of your activity in Portugal, whether a Unipessoal Lda, a Lda or a self-employed status, is chosen in line with that project.
On the excluded or at-risk side, several cases recur. Pensioners first, who are outside the scope of IFICI. Next, people whose activity does not fall within the qualified scope targeted by the regime: carrying on an activity, however thriving, is not enough if it does not fit the eligible categories. Finally, and this is the most frequent trap, those who believe they can obtain the benefit without genuinely relocating their residence. IFICI is a Portuguese resident regime: if your home, your effective management and your activity remain elsewhere, you are not a tax resident of Portugal, and the regime does not apply. Worse, you expose yourself in your country of origin.
Because these boundaries are fine, the useful reflex is to draw up a diagnosis before deciding anything. Testing your eligibility, comparing your real profile against the regime's categories and identifying the points to be settled by a professional avoids committing to a move on a flawed basis. That is exactly the purpose of the tool we make available.
The real risk is not in Portugal, it is in your country of residence
Here is the candid point that few sales pitches own up to. For someone who in fact remains a resident of their country of origin while displaying a company or an address in Portugal, the main danger does not come from the Portuguese authorities: it comes from their own country of residence. A Portuguese company managed from France can be regarded as having its place of effective management in France, hence taxable in France; a permanent establishment can be characterised. On the French side again, article 209 B of the CGI targets certain holdings in foreign companies subject to a privileged tax regime, and article 123 bis of the CGI can concern an individual holding at least 10% of a foreign entity with financial assets under such a regime, by reference to article 238 A.
On this last point, a nuance is needed to avoid panic. A "privileged tax regime" within the meaning of article 238 A corresponds to taxation at least 40% lower than French tax. Yet ordinary Portuguese IRC, whose indicative 2026 orders of magnitude run around 19% at the standard rate and 15% for SMEs on the first 50,000 euros of profit, is in principle not a privileged regime within the meaning of that text. But this assessment is made case by case, according to your real structure, and these rates are to be confirmed. This is not a statement to turn into a certainty: it is exactly the kind of point to validate with a tax specialist.
The practical consequence is clear. Portugal is only relevant if you genuinely settle there: your life, your effective management and your activity must be there. Substance prevails over appearance, and a mere address is never enough. IFICI does not rescue an arrangement without a real move; on the contrary, it rewards a sincere and qualified relocation.
The right method: test your eligibility, then structure with the right partners
The winning sequence has three stages. First, honestly check whether your profile fits the eligible categories of IFICI: that is the role of the eligibility test, which serves to inform the decision before any move. Next, frame your tax exit from the country of origin, taking into account residence under article 4 B for France, any exit tax and the applicable treaty. Finally, structure the move to Portugal in line with the project: legal form, NIF, NIPC, registration, connection with a Contabilista Certificado for accounting.
This is precisely where Business Portugal's role lies. Audrey is a consultant in company formation and setting up in Portugal: she coordinates your project, structures it and guides you, but she is neither a tax lawyer nor an accountant. Detailed tax matters, the analysis of your IFICI eligibility in light of your exact activity, the exit tax or article 123 bis aspects on the French side, are the domain of a partner tax specialist, and the accounting that of a partner Contabilista Certificado. Since 2025, more than 75 entrepreneurs have been supported in this spirit of honest guidance, which consists in saying what falls to us and what falls to a tax or legal professional.
If Portugal is seriously under study, start at the beginning: test your IFICI eligibility to find out whether your profile fits the regime, then let us discuss the next steps together so as to point you towards the right partners at the right time.
A business project in Portugal?
Book a first free, no-commitment call. We review your situation and the right next steps.