1. Obtaining a taxpayer number in Portugal. Número de Identificação Fiscal (NIF) is an analogue of TIN. It is required for anyone who wants to open an account in a Portuguese bank and make payments.
An investor does not need to go to Portugal to obtain a Portugal tax number. A tax representative can act on his behalf: he receives a power of attorney in his name and visits the Portuguese tax office for the investor.
Immigrant Invest cooperates with a Portuguese company, whose lawyers become tax representatives for investors. To obtain the NIF, the lawyers handed it over to the Banele’s tax representative:
a completed application for registration of a taxpayer number;
a copy of the South African passport and international passport;
a copy of a document with an individual taxpayer number in South Africa;
confirmation of the investor’s professional activity and income.
The Portuguese tax service approved Banele’s application and entered the investor into the register of taxpayers. Banele also has a personal account on the website of the Portuguese tax service.
2. Opening a Portuguese bank account. All program payments must be made from a local bank account. On lawyers' advice, Immigrant Invest Banele chose Novo Banco, which provides services for remote account opening.
All new clients of the bank undergo a Due Diligence check. Banele provided passport details, Portuguese taxpayer number, and contact details of his tax representative in Portugal to go through it. Also, lawyers sent the bank confirmation of the legality of the investor’s sources of income.
Banele had no problems with the law and always paid taxes on time, so the bank approved his application within an hour.
After a bank check, the investor issued a card with a sample signature. He did this in the presence of a notary, who assured the signature’s authenticity. The lawyers also sent the card to the Portuguese bank.
