Portugal Relocation
Forming a company with co-founders in Portugal: prepare the decisions
You are building a business with other people. Before requesting incorporation, write down contributions, responsibilities and how decisions that matter to the operation will be made and documented.
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Clarify the agreement between shareholders
Justiça includes a quota company among the forms used by multiple shareholders. Prepare a table of people, proposed ownership, financing and responsibilities. Separate capital ownership from operational work, since these may change differently over time. List matters to formalise, such as time commitments, major decisions and the arrival of another shareholder. An oral agreement about percentages alone does not describe how the founders will run the company or respond when circumstances change.
Inventory assets and existing contracts
Identify who currently owns the software, brand, content, accounts and customer agreements. Have the conditions under which the future company can use them examined. Also consider a disagreement, extended absence or shareholder departure to identify questions that need addressing. The aim is to have an arrangement drafted around the actual relationships. The precise legal mechanisms must be determined from the choices the founders share and the records available, rather than copied from an unrelated venture.
Prepare the Portuguese formation file
If the project leads to a new company, assemble shareholder identification, proposed ownership, management roles, the actual activity and intended address. Portugal’s online incorporation service requires shareholders to have a Portuguese NIF, among other conditions. Documents and signing options depend on the file, so check them before committing a date to customers. For a commercial company, also organise accounting and the start of activity with a contabilista certificado. Keep evidence of decisions available to the people preparing those steps.
Build a practical timeline
Set out the known dates and the dates that remain conditional: any relocation, contract expiry or renewal, intended formation and the first service delivery. For every action, record the responsible person, the document needed and the condition that allows the next step to proceed. Ask each adviser to specify their scope. The formation request becomes more useful when the business purpose, existing activity and timing constraints are described together, with cross-border questions raised at the start and ownership of each follow-up clearly assigned.
- Sample contracts and invoices without unnecessary customer data.
- Residence, working location and customer countries recorded separately.
- The main question to resolve before the first invoice is issued.
Portugal
Before you incorporate
Registering as self-employed and incorporating a company are different routes. The choice depends on how your business actually operates. A Portuguese company alone does not determine your tax residence or the treatment of every source of income.
Information to gather
- Your country of residence and where you actually work.
- A description of the services or products you sell.
- Whether your customers are businesses or individuals, and their countries.
- Any shareholders, existing business structure and your planned timing.
Sources and references
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