Re: how do I become a resident
 

A private message would have sufficed after someone obviously contacted you Rosemary, but as an adult l can take a public flogging to pacify the tell-tale on here!

Re: how do I become a resident
 

Firstly, I didn't contact Rosemary and I am happy for her to confirm or deny it.

Secondly, as an adult, it is up to you to weigh the risks surrounding the current situation and make your choice as to whether you fly to Portugal immediately or not to formalise your residence.

Re: how do I become a resident
 

How many times can l thank you for your informative & to some, amusing posts?

Re: how do I become a resident
 

Nobody made contact with me, I was purely reacting to your post. Get down off your high horse.

Rosemary

Re: how do I become a resident
 

Can I wade in, here? Can we remove some heat?

There is a lot of anger, distress and worry about Brexit, on all sides. There are also questions and answers posted on a range of other topics where the decisions made can critically affect the outcomes. Those answers come from, I suggest, universally well meaning people, whose knowledge ranges from expert and accurate, to flawed and incorrect. We all believe we are right, and, surely, we all have a right to hold and to express our own opinions and to state what we believe are the facts.

It would, of course, be daft to make decisions based upon what is written on any forum on the planet without corroborating against other authoritative (and ideally source) material.

Re: how do I become a resident
 

I never asked you to thank me. It would however have been useful if you could have been vaguely polite. Nevertheless, as Diddion has correctly pointed out, this is a forum. If you want expert opinion, go ask an expert.

Re: how do I become a resident
 

I must have missed a day somewhere & can't be bothered to wade through that lot but suffice to say there has to be a lot of big IFs & BUTs simply because nothing has been agreed.

However, one of the very few definites is that Portugal has said that any UK passport holder in Portugal by 30th January 2020 will have the right to register residency as a right until 31st December 2020.

https://imigrante.sef.pt/en/brexit/

Re: how do I become a resident
 

How do you confirm that you were in Portugal by 30th January 2020?

Re: how do I become a resident
 

On a similar vein, how is there any clarity on this situation, not sure if Brexit makes any difference to this one:

Renting out Portuguese property
Could I be a resident of Portugal (so I can stay in Portugal for 182 days/yr in one stretch) but not a tax resident of Portugal (spend less than 183 days/year there)?
At same time renting out a Portuguese property (summer months only) and paying tax in Portugal on that income only, without paying tax in Portugal on other worldwide income?
Of course the income would be declared to UK tax authorities (have a property there as well) which is where I am registered, but under double tax arrangments maybe no tax would be due (depending on amounts involved).

Re: how do I become a resident
 

A couple of points from.the thread.

USS Pension
You need to check with USS whether it is regarded by HMRC as a a local authority/government scheme. If it is regarded as such, it will be taxable in the UK, otherwise in Portugal (in which case NHR will apply).

If taxable in the UK, then, I believe (but am unsure of this next bit) it will not itself be taxable in Portugal. However it will sit at the bottom of your income for the calculation of tax - effectively pushing the income assessable to Portuguese tax up into higher bands.The UK personal tax allowance will still be available against such income. That allowance may be reduced or abolished in the future.

Note. I have a teachers pension from teachers pensions agency, from my time as an FE lecturer. That pension is declared on UK and PT tax sumbissions, is taxed in UK, and I do receive the personal allowance, as noted.

Rental Income is also subject to UK tax, with no further tax here under NHR. Without NHR, my understanding is that it will also be assessed for tax here, with the double taxation treaty applicable. The end result is that the tax payable will the higher of the two nations. As above, the UK personal allowance applies.

Note. I have some rental income and this has been taxed as noted above

Personal Allowance.
A final caveat on this. It was mooted, some 4 or 5 years ago, that this might be abolished or altered for expats. If so that would probably have applied to rental income. It seemed, though, that the Pension income which is taxable in the UK would probably have continued to enjoy that benefit. It was not pursued at the time, and could return one day.

Re: how do I become a resident
 

I'd have thought the answer to that was obvious. lol!

Simply collect every receipt, ATM cash withdrawal, hotel booking confirmation & anything & everything you can get that shows your presence in the country.

Also remember we live in a world where the Americans can drop several missiles bang on the head of an individual half a world away in the dark & a smartphone can be tracked to just a few metres.

Re: how do I become a resident
 

At last someone who is giving 100% accurate information, thank you sir!
But....another naive question for the pre 30th Jan residency situation;>>>>>>> Will the receipts & Airbnb confirmation documents have to be continuous throughout the rest of the year??

Sample scenario>>>>>>>>> I go to Portugal pre 30th Jan & book an Airbnb for 2 weeks & withdraw cash from ATM's & have dinner/food receipts,,,but only for a 2 week period!!....Then l go out of the country for 4-6 months to sell my US/UK property & return for the rest of the year (which could be a November return at worst), will that suffice for the residency requirements that end in Dec 20202?

Re: how do I become a resident
 

I think this is a grey area. Your residency starts on the first day of your entering the country with the intention of remaining permanently, so people who come for holidays, for example, would be excluded. It could, probably successfully, be argued that your Airbnb stay was just a holiday and, that being the case, your first day would be on your return, later in the year. Some people have said that Airbnb is not accepted as proof of residence (although others have succeeded). And, if it were to be challenged, you would have no evidence to support your claim of residency, either.

A much safer way would be to take. 6 month rental of a very cheap place, with a rental agreement. No need to connect up services, and you could (as we did) obtain and secure the accommodation by pre-paying the whole lot. You also would need to have the atestado completed and countersigned by members of the same area (junta) but the letting agent would, I am sure, help with that, and from there a trip to the Câmara will get you residency.

I think there are too many potential pitfalls with the way you propose, if you want to be resident by 30 January. But is this date strictly speaking necessary, since under the Withdrawal Agreement you should have the rest of the year to secure residency here and be seen as resident pre-Brexit, here? That is, during the transition period. See, for example, this link. Institute for government.

...I wonder if you are making life a little more complex than it needs to be.

Re: how do I become a resident
 

Thanks for the helpful & thoughtful reply, & yes, l always make life more complex by even thinking about changing countries again!....(I moved to the USA from England in 2006 & got my Citizenship)
Brexit has speeded things up because l have a "hankering" for living in Portugal, & as a Brit/EU citizen l always had the option, but now it's being taken away from me!

Anyway, enough of my waffling, & can you guide me to an estate/rental agent who can find me a 6 month rental with a written agreement even if it's a pig shed???....really!

Re: how do I become a resident
 

My thoughts;

Evidence of a 2-week stay in Portugal around the end of January 2020 is evidence of a holiday rather than evidence of residence, if it is subjected to scrutiny.

The Portuguese government leaflet (https://www.portaldiplomatico.mne.go..._Brexit_EN.PDF) mentions the 31 December 2020 deadline in the context of a no-deal Brexit and is a mechanism for those who have previously failed to (or who have chosen not to) register residence by Brexit-day, to allow them to do so.

If there is a ratified Withdrawal Agreement, then the transitional period (ending 31 December 2020) provides for the current rules continuing unchanged until then - ie the requirement to register residency during the 4th month after arriving to take up residency. I'm not convinced that arrival in January 2020 automatically gives you the extended registration period (in this situation) rather than the normal April/May deadline. But arrival at any point during 2020 gives you the current easy route to residency, assuming an agreed transition period.

Apologies for this being now out of sequence.