About Black and White Listed countries in Portugal
Written by Offshore Property on 2009/01/04 – 10:10 PM
Property Tax Reform
In 2003 changes in local legislation meant that countries outside of Portugal (sometimes referred to as Offshore Centres) were classified by an international body known as OECD as either Black List or White List jurisdictions. The Black List jurisdictions were for the most part countries that offered beneficial tax regimes that were out of line with the White List countries. The intention being that those on the Black List would be encouraged to fall into line with White List jurisdictions.
These proposals replaced SISA by IMT (Imposto Sobre Transmissoes) and municipal tax by IMI (Imposto Municipal Sobre Imoveis). This changes were coupled with higher tax rates on properties regulated in so called “offshore countries”. These jurisdictions are found in the so called “Offshore List” published in 2001 which shows about 80 offshore jurisdictions like Gibraltar, Jearsey, Guernsey. The Financial Times guestimated that there are over 100,000 properties in Portugal owned in offshore companies of which 60,000 are located in the Algarve. According to the Almancil Business Association about 2,147 out of 4,028 tourist properties are held by offshore corporate structures.
New Tax rates caused panic
The huge IMI (annual property tax) uplift from 2% to 5% per year plus the intention to reveluate all properties that were declared with an unrealistic low value caused a panic below property vendors. Property agents and lawyers experienced queues of clients in front of their doors to clarify how to deal with the situation.
Re-Domiciliation
In this times many people decided to “Re-Domicile” their properties to a White Listed Country or even into their private name. This additional IMT (property purchase tax) payment of about 6% was considered to be the lesser evil. Since professionals found a “leak” in the black list of Malta, Delaware and New Zealand are still the favoured territories for re-domiciliation.
List of Black Listed Countries in Portugal
Click here for a detailed list of Black Listed Countries in Portugal: List of Black Listed Countries in Portugal
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