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Former-Resident Tax Relief Calculator

The Programa Regressar tax benefit excludes half the salary of anyone moving back to Portugal after five years abroad from income tax, for five years. Enter your gross annual salary and the year you became a resident again to see the tax with and without the article 12.º-A regime.

Enter the GROSS annual salary, including the holiday and Christmas payments. The year of return is the year you became a Portuguese tax resident: it sets the five-year benefit window and the years in which you must not have been resident.

IRS saved per year
€3,442.76
Saved over the 5 years of the benefit
€17,213.80
Income excluded from tax€15,000.00
Taxable income with the regime€10,412.91
IRS with the regime€1,367.88
IRS without the regime€4,810.64
Effective IRS rate4.56% instead of 16.04%
Net annual income with the regime€25,332.12

That is €286.90 a month. Note that the saving is 71.57% of the tax rather than 50%: because the brackets are progressive, the half of the income that leaves the tax base is the top half, the part that was being taxed at the highest rates.

With that year of return, the benefit applies to income from 2026 to 2030. To qualify you must not have been resident in Portugal in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, and you must have been resident by 31 December 2020.

2026 is the last year in which you can become a resident and still enter the regime, as the law stands today (article 12.º-A(1)(a): “by 2026”). Anyone becoming resident after that is outside it, unless a new law extends the deadline.

Employment income (category A), individual taxation, mainland Portugal. Not calculated: category B business and professional income (its own net-income rules), tax credits, the article 68.º-A solidarity surcharge, joint taxation, other household income, and the eligibility conditions themselves, which depend on your residence history.

Informative estimate based on the Portuguese income-tax code. Not tax or financial advice.

Half the income comes off the table

Article 12.º-A of the Portuguese income-tax code excludes 50% of employment and self-employment income from tax for people returning to Portugal, capped at €250,000 of excluded income per year. Note where the rule sits: article 12.º is headed “negative delimitation of incidence”. That half is not exempt income that still counts towards your rate: it is income that does not exist for IRS purposes. That is why the regime is more generous than it looks, and it is where it differs from the IRS Jovem of article 12.º-B, which is an exemption that keeps the progressivity.

Why the saving is 70% of the tax, not 50%

The mental arithmetic almost everyone does is “half the income, half the tax”. It is wrong, in the returner’s favour. The article 68.º brackets are progressive, so the half that leaves is always the top half, the part that was being taxed at the highest rates. On a €30,000 salary the IRS falls from €4,810.64 to €1,367.88, a 71% cut, and the marginal rate drops from the 5th bracket (31.1%) to the 2nd (15.7%). The pattern holds across the table: between €20,000 and €100,000 of salary, the saving is consistently around 70% of the tax you would pay without the regime.

What the calculator does (and what it leaves out)

The calculator works out IRS twice on the same salary: with the 50% exclusion and without it. Social Security is always charged on the full salary, because the exclusion is an income-tax rule and does not touch contributions. The article 25.º standard deduction (the greater of €4,587.09 and your contributions) is applied to what remains subject to tax, and then the 2026 brackets (mainland, individual taxation). This is exactly how the tax authority tells your employer to withhold: the ordinary table, applied to 50% of the pay. Category B income (its own net-income rules), tax credits, the solidarity surcharge and joint taxation are out of scope.

The conditions, which are all about dates

To enter the regime you must become a tax resident by 2026, not have been resident in any of the five preceding years, have been a Portuguese resident at some point before that, have your tax situation in order, and never have applied for non-habitual resident status. The five years are where most people trip up: until the 2024 State Budget it was three years, and a great deal of published guidance still says three. Someone returning in 2026 must not have been resident in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 or 2025, and must have been resident by 31 December 2020. The calculator shows you those years from the date you enter.

Worked example

Take someone moving back to Portugal in 2026 for a job paying €30,000 gross a year. Social Security is €3,300 and does not change. Without the regime, taxable income would be €25,412.91 and IRS €4,810.64. With it, half the salary leaves the tax base: €15,000 remains, less the €4,587.09 standard deduction, giving taxable income of €10,412.91 and IRS of €1,367.88. The saving is €3,442.76 a year, or €286.90 a month, and €17,213.80 across the five years of the benefit, which here run from 2026 to 2030. Net annual income rises from €21,889.36 to €25,332.12. On a €50,000 salary the saving is €8,213.18 a year and €41,065.90 in total.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Programa Regressar tax benefit?
It is the tax regime for former residents, set out in article 12.º-A of the Portuguese income-tax code and created in 2019. It excludes 50% of employment and self-employment income from tax for people returning to Portugal, for five years, capped at €250,000 of excluded income per year. Programa Regressar is the government programme that gathers several measures for returnees; this is the tax one.
By when do I have to return to qualify?
You must become a Portuguese tax resident by 2026. Paragraph a) of article 12.º-A(1), as amended by the 2024 State Budget, says “by 2026”, so 2026 is the final entry year as the law stands today. Someone becoming resident in 2026 benefits from 2026 to 2030. Any future extension will only count once published in the official gazette.
Do I have to apply for the regime?
No. The benefit is automatic and needs no prior recognition: it follows directly from the law as soon as you become resident and meet the conditions. There is no application, no form and no registration deadline, unlike the old non-habitual resident status and today’s IFICI. You simply flag the regime on your modelo 3 return, in the annexes matching the income you earned.
How does this show up on the tax return?
In annex A, employment income is declared under code 410, and the instructions are explicit that you declare the whole amount, “including income that is excluded from taxation”. You then fill in box 4E, where you state the year you became resident in Portugal. It is the tax authority that applies the 50% exclusion. Self-employment income uses annex B.
What if I already filed returns without claiming it?
You can file a replacement return for any year still within the administrative-complaint window, which is two years from the legal filing deadline for that year (article 140.º(2) of the income-tax code). Programa Regressar expressly provides for this, for people who did not know the benefit existed.
Can I have less tax withheld each month?
Yes, and it saves waiting a year for the refund. Give your employer a written statement, for which there is no official template, invoking your status as a former resident covered by article 12.º-A. The employer then withholds on only 50% of the income, applying the rate from the ordinary withholding table. For self-employed invoices, you write “Retenção sobre 50%, nos termos do artigo 12.º-A do Código do IRS” on the receipt.
Can I combine this with the IRS Jovem or the IFICI?
No. They are alternatives and each rules the others out. Article 12.º-B(9)(c) bars anyone taxed under article 12.º-A from the IRS Jovem, and the IFICI is closed to anyone who has used the former-resident regime. Applying for non-habitual resident status also excludes you from article 12.º-A, under its paragraph 2. It is worth comparing all three before deciding.
Are the figures exact?
The 50% exclusion, the €250,000 cap, the five years and the 2026 deadline come from article 12.º-A; the brackets and the standard deduction are the official 2026 mainland values. The result is an educational estimate assuming individual taxation, with no tax credits, no other income and no solidarity surcharge. It does not replace your tax return or professional advice.

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Author: Thorben Rasmus Idel · Reviewed by: Nahar Geva · Last reviewed: 2026-08-12