Portugal · Tax regime
Tax Incentive for Scientific Research and Innovation (Incentivo Fiscal à Investigação Científica e Inovação)
In force since 1 January 2024 as the replacement for the closed NHR regime. It is substantially narrower than NHR. This is not a retirement regime.
IFICI is often sold as NHR's return. It is not. NHR was a status you gained simply by moving to Portugal. IFICI is a status you earn by working in a specific way for a specific category of employer. Its blanket foreign-income exemption is, in fact, better drafted than NHR's treaty-dependent version. But it only helps the narrow group of people who actually qualify.
Qualifying routes
Applies only to income from the qualifying activity. Other Portuguese income is taxed at the normal progressive rates, up to 53%.
A blanket exemption, with exemption-with-progression, on foreign employment, self-employment, rental, investment income and capital gains. This no longer depends on treaty analysis, as it did under NHR.
The facts
- Total landed cost
- No direct cost. The cost is structural: you need a genuinely qualifying role, and getting there usually means restructuring how your income is earned.
- Route type
- Tax regime, not a visa
- Timeline
- 1–6 months (Registration is due by 15 January of the year following your first year of Portuguese tax residence. The deadline is hard.)
- Physical presence
- Requires Portuguese tax residence, meaning 183+ days in the country, or a habitual residence in Portugal on 31 December.
- Family
- Applies individually. Each spouse must qualify based on their own activity
- Permanent residency
- Not applicable. This is a tax regime, not an immigration status.
- Citizenship
- Not applicable
- Language test
- Not applicable
- Dual citizenship
- Permitted
- Requirements
- become Portuguese tax residentnot have been Portuguese tax resident in the previous 5 calendar yearsnot have previously benefited from NHRhold a qualifying highly-qualified role, generally EQF level 6+ or PhD, in a qualifying entityregister with the Portuguese tax authority by 15 January of the following year
- Pensions are excluded and taxed at progressive rates up to 53%. If the client is a retiree, IFICI does nothing for them. This is the decisive break from NHR, and it invalidates most pre-2024 Portugal retirement planning.
- Income from blacklisted jurisdictions is taxed at a flat 35% with no exemption. That is a real problem for families with structures in classic offshore centres.
- The registration deadline of 15 January following your first residence year is unforgiving. There is no general reinstatement mechanism.
- You must actively carry on the qualifying activity in each year to keep the benefit. The status is not granted for 10 years in the way NHR was.
- Prior NHR beneficiaries are excluded, save for narrow 2024 transitional cases.
- Qualifying-employer criteria are technical: RFAI-eligible companies, exporters with 50%+ of turnover from exports, and entities recognised as of national economic interest. Whether a given employer qualifies is an opinion, not a certificate. Get it in writing before relocating.