Company formation in Portugal

Company registration in Portugal: start a business in Portugal

How to set up a company in Portugal?

Depending on the nature of your activity in Portugal, the type of structure that best suits your project on the Portuguese market (liaison or representative office, subsidiary, branch), and the legal form of business in Portugal that you will choose (sole proprietorship, limited liability company, etc...), the administrative procedures and formalities for the formation of the company in Portugal may vary. Generally, the steps to create and register a company in Portugal are:

Choice of the legal form under Portuguese law and the social capital
Drafting the company statutes in Portuguese.
Opening a Portuguese bank account
Registering the company in the Portuguese trade register
Obtaining a Portuguese tax identification number

After these steps of creation, you will receive all the necessary legal documents attesting the legal existence of your company or subsidiary in Portugal. Your Portugal business will also have to meet the specific accounting requirements of Portuguese business law.

Portugal: Merger & Acquisition (M&A)

Setting up your business in Portugal and starting from scratch to develop it in the Portuguese market can be an exciting challenge, but it can also be time consuming. Sometimes it is more interesting and faster to acquire a Portuguese competitor that is already well established in the Portuguese market. It is therefore necessary to study the Portuguese market carefully to detect the most interesting companies.

To create a company in Portugal, it is strongly advised to be accompanied by a Portuguese lawyer or an Portuguese expert who will be able to save you many problems in front of the subtleties of the Portuguese business law.

nativExpand is your gateway to facilitate the creation of your company in Portugal. Thanks to a network of experts in company incorporation on the Portuguese market, we will accompany you and put you in contact with a Portuguese professional, ideally an English speaker or speaking your language.

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Company formation in Portugal

To set up a company in Portugal, you must choose the name of the company, define the status of the Portuguese company, register it in the Portuguese Commercial Register, open a bank account in Portugal and finally register your activity.

You must first register your company with the Portuguese Trade Registry in order to obtain a Portuguese entity registration number. You will then be able to domicile your company with a Portuguese domiciliation company.

It is important to be accompanied by professionals (Portuguese lawyers and accountants) in order to get the right advice for the success of your business in Portugal. nativExpand connects you with a Portuguese expert from its international network.

There are several legal forms: the limited liability company (Lda), the public limited company (SA), the general partnership and the limited partnership.

Portugal offers many advantages to create and develop a subsidiary or a company: economic dynamism, political stability, a very competitive labour cost, a highly qualified workforce, a diversified economy, freedom of establishment and an interesting tax system.

There are many sectors in Portugal in which it is interesting to develop a business: tourism (and in particular luxury tourism), real estate (many foreign investors buy a property in Portugal), construction, biotechnology, innovation, tech startups and new technologies, energy,...