After using an
advogada to obtain an AL licence in 2010-ish for approx €800, I have tried to do it myself this time.
So far, to comply under the new system, I have registered the necessary
Início de Actividade at the
Finanças (~1 hour, in person), shown evidence of that at the
Câmara (10 minutes, in person) who then passed it through the
Balcão do Empreendedor to
Turismo de Portugal who issued the new AL number. All in March 2015.
In anticipation of actual guests, I registered online with SEF/SIBA to report (online) guest passport etc details. May 2015.
Having exceeded the IVA registration threshold of €10,000 in 2015, I returned to
Finanças in late February 2016 to register for IVA and was told that this should have been done in January by some sort of annual return but they waived the fine because of my previously clean record. IVA registration effective from 1st February. (~45 minutes, in person).
Next to
Segurança Social to register, so that I could submit the A1 exemption certificate (previously obtained from HMRC - see previous posts) to avoid paying contributions in Portugal. Two visits, one just to find out what was needed (photocopies of passport and proof of
Início de Actividade and various forms for completion) (20 minutes, in person) and on my return (~90 minutes, half waiting) more forms requiring completion. I was assured that that process was complete until I would have to show a renewed A1 as the existing on expires at the end of 2016, though I have yet to receive any correspondence by post or email as proof.
Total cost to date for compliance with the new system, apart from time, is zero. Benefits include a reduction in IRS from 28% to ~3.75% for this year and the opportunity to reclaim IVA on substantial upcoming maintenance bills.
While in the
Finanças I also submitted a request for reassessment of our property's VPT (for IMI purposes) with the outcome being a reduction in IMI payments of nearly 25%, purely due to the standard factors for age of property and reduced building costs.