Today marks one of the most important days of my professional career.
When Portugal decided to scrap the NHR regime with almost no notice, my first reaction was to assume that Fresh Portugal (now Fresh Legal Group) is finished.
We were “The NHR firm”. We run a group on FB with 20,000 people called “tax benefits for expats in Portugal” and the main benefit has just been eliminated.
Then came the transition period for the old NHR. This didn’t only buy us time but also gave us an opportunity. People who needed the old NHR were now trying helplessly to register as tax residents, with the tax authorities refusing to “let them in” due to delays with the immigration authority. We figured it out, found ways to register rapidly and became the firm that can make magic happen. This is when we started our rapid growth phase.
However, we already knew then that the NHR will end eventually and when the new regime, IFICI, was announced, we gathered all our brain power to study it in great detail and figure out how it is going to work.
When we realised that there will be a special route designed for the startup industry, I was personally thrilled. On January 2025, I wrote a letter sharing my belief that the optimistic vision of expats in Portugal involves integration via the startup industry. I also shared in multiple occasions my belief that Portugal, almost accidentally, created one of the best tax benefits systems in the world. Tax benefits in exchange for involvement and real contribution in the industry.
I personally love startups. I have been a founder of one and know how hard it is and how important it is to find people who support you in your early days. I have been supporting founders in Portugal through an investment via CORE Angels Lisbon, a group that I am a member of, and have been mentoring students at Nova university pro bono. This is something that I’m deeply passionate about and finally, Portugal created a real incentive for people to get involved.
However, Portugal, as Portugal does, did not make it simple. The benefits are granted to board members and employees. We knew that some people will simply suggest to incorporate companies but we knew that a company without an activity is not a safe solution. It may work, until it doesn’t. We knew that this is an opportunity to build and create in Portugal.
We knew that this is an opportunity to build, create, invest and support founders in Portugal, for real. So I got on a plane and went to meet the person who was most suitable to create such an activity, Vincent Tan, who was visiting family in Malaysia and was living in Germany. Vincent got on board and together we created LX Launch, an AI venture builder in Lisbon, funded by expats. The deal to the expats is simple and brilliant – help us create great companies in Portugal through capital, experience and connections, join the board and help, and Portugal will reward you with tax benefits.
We were fortunate to have an incredible group of incredible people who believed in us and in this concept, but they all asked the same question – when will we have a confirmation that this is actually working, to which we responded the same – the deadline is March 31, 2026. It should all be approved by then, but there is no reason to worry since we are following the law to the letter. But of course, knowing that something should work is not the same as knowing that it’s actually working.
I had little sleep tonight and when I woke up in the morning, applications were still under analysis. Until approximately 11am, when the confirmations started coming in. Approved. Approved. Approved. Approved…
Portugal now offers the best deal to entrepreneurial people from all over the world. Come to Portugal. Build great companies or join others building them. Get tax exemptions for your foreign income. The exemptions aren’t for everyone like the previous NHR. They are only for builders. And we know how to make it work.
It is a journey that started over a year ago and today we can finally celebrate!
Frequently Asked Questions
Automatically Created