Portugal news – Portuguese startups can now apply for the Stock Options tax regime and for the tax incentive for Scientific Research and Innovation. Here are Portugal’s new startup tax benefits and how to request legal recognition to obtain tax benefits under the new Startup Law, as well as an overview of Portugal’s Startup Ecosystem in 2024:
Portugal’s new Startup Law is now enforced and both startups and scaleups can request legal recognition to obtain tax benefits.
Here are Portugal’s new startup tax benefits in 2024:
1 - New Tax Regime for Stock Options Plans
Portuguese startups and scaleups can now benefit from Portugal’s new tax regime for stock options plans that provides for a single effective tax rate of 14%, applicable only at the time of liquidity.
2 – New Tax Incentive for Scientific Research and Innovation
Portuguese startups and scaleups can now benefit from Portugal’s new tax incentive for scientific research and innovation tax regime (IFICI). Portugal’s new tax regime, that promotes the retention of talent and qualified labor, is applicable to foreign professionals who settle in Portugal and to Portuguese professionals who have been outside the country for at least 5 years and that work in legally recognized startups. Portugal’s tax benefit under the scientific research and innovation tax regime is a flat rate of 20% on the IRS for 10 years.
3 – New tax incentive for startups under the Avançar program.
Portuguese startups and scaleups can now benefit from Portugal’s new tax incentive under the Avançar program that provides special benefits for startups in the selection criteria for public support programs such as Avançar and Mar2030.
How to request legal recognition to obtain tax benefits under Portugal’s new Startup Law?
These are the requirements to obtain legal recognition as a Startup in Portugal and thereby be able to obtain tax benefits under Portugal’s new Startup Law:
1 - Be legally constituted in Portugal
2 – Be less than 10 years old
3 - Have less than 250 employees
4 – Have less than 50 million in annual turnover.
Companies that are more than 10 years old, have more than 250 employees or 50 million in turnover, can apply for scaleup status if they are qualified to receive workers under the Tech Visa Program.
5 – Not be majority owned by a big company
6 - Be an innovative company with a high growth potential that meets one of the following requirements:
- Be recognized under the ID seal awarded by the innovation body ANI (Agência Nacional de Inovação), or
- Have completed a round of Venture Capital or Angel financing, or
- Be recognized as an innovative company with a high growth potential by Startup Portugal.
What is the website for requesting Portugal’s new startup tax benefits:
There are 2 websites for requesting Portugal’s new startup tax benefits:
What is Portugal’s startup ecosystem in 2024?
Portugal’s startup ecosystem in 2024 is quite mature with more than 4,000 startups that generated 2.3 billion euros in turnover. Portuguese startups have generated 1.3 billion euros in exports and account for around 25,000 jobs, according to the study “Startup & Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Report” prepared for Startup Portugal by IDC-Informa D&B.
The turnover of Portuguese startups grew 24.4%, a percentage that is much higher than the 9.1% generated between 2019 and 2022 when considering the entire business sector. 26% of Portuguese startups grew during 3 consecutive years.
The amount paid by Portuguese startups to employees is also 37% above the national average, with the average remuneration by startups being around 1,700 euros per employee.
The districts in Portugal that concentrate the majority of startups are Lisbon with 1,822 startups and Porto with 643 startups, followed by the districts of Setúbal, Braga, Aveiro, Coimbra and Leiria.
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