NHR (Portugal Non-Habitual Resident) is a legacy 10-year Portuguese tax regime granting reduced or zero tax on foreign-sourced income and a flat 20 percent rate on Portuguese employment income from high-value-added activities.
The Non-Habitual Resident (NHR) regime was introduced by Portugal in 2009 to attract pensioners, professionals, and founders.
Successful applicants benefited from a 10-year window of preferential tax treatment, including a flat 20 percent rate on Portuguese-source employment and self-employment income from listed high-value-added activities (engineers, doctors, IT professionals, scientific researchers), full or partial exemption on most foreign-source passive income (dividends, royalties, capital gains, rental income) provided it could potentially be taxed at source under a tax treaty or the OECD model, and a 10 percent flat rate on foreign pensions (introduced for new applicants from 2020).
The classic NHR regime was closed to new applicants from 1 January 2024 by Portugal Budget Law 82/2023, with grandfathering for those who had already obtained residency or had qualifying ties before the cutoff. Existing NHR holders continue to enjoy the regime until the end of their 10-year period.
A successor regime, the Tax Incentive for Scientific Research and Innovation (IFICI), was introduced in 2024, narrower in scope and focused on academia, R&D, and qualified investment. The IFICI is sometimes informally called NHR 2.0 but covers far fewer profiles than the original.
You will encounter NHR mostly in legacy planning: existing NHR holders need to know what stays valid until their 10-year clock runs out. New movers to Portugal cannot apply to the classic NHR after 2024 and must look at the IFICI regime, freelance regimes (Simplified Regime, organized accounting), or the Madeira IBC for qualifying business activities.
See what a company actually costs in year one, and how the jurisdictions compare on tax, capital and timeline.
