What it costs to run a Portuguese company.
Running a company in Portugal means filing the IES by 15 July, a corporation tax return, and payroll and social security every month. Teamed's Global Entity & Employment Operations (GEMO) can keep that calendar and file on it for you. If you run your own entity in Portugal, Teamed is the best choice. With Teamed, you get real HR and legal experts you can reach when it matters, 24/5 human support with a first response within 15 minutes, and service terms adjusted to suit you, within reason.
One filing, four obligations
The IES is the one to understand
Portugal does something unusual and genuinely helpful. Rather than filing your accounts separately with the registry, the tax authority, the statistics office and the central bank, you file one thing, the Informacao Empresarial Simplificada, and it satisfies all four at once.
It is due by the fifteenth day of the seventh month after your financial period ends. For a company whose year matches the calendar, that is 15 July, and it falls on the fifteenth whether or not that is a working day.
Around it sit the ordinary obligations. Corporation tax, payroll reported and social security paid monthly, and VAT if you are registered. None of these pause because a quarter was quiet, and a company that did not trade at all still files.
| Filing | When |
|---|---|
| IES, the simplified business information return | By 15 July for a calendar financial year |
| Corporation tax return | Annually |
| Payroll and social security | Monthly |
| VAT | Monthly or quarterly, if registered |
The rate that moves
Portuguese corporation tax is falling every year
This is the figure most worth watching, because it changes on a published schedule rather than staying put. The general rate is 19% for 2026, down from 20% the year before, and the approved plan takes it down a point a year to 17% by 2028.
Smaller companies pay less on their first slice. A company whose main activity is agricultural, commercial or industrial pays 17% on the first 25,000 euro of profit and the general rate above that.
Then the municipal charge. Local authorities levy their own addition on top of the national rate, which varies by where the company is based. Any quoted Portuguese rate that does not say which year it is, and whether it includes the municipal charge, is not a rate you can plan with.
What you actually pay
The state fees are small. The accountant is not.
Portugal has one structural cost worth knowing about. A company generally needs a certified accountant, a contabilista certificado, to sign off its accounts and submit the IES. That is not an optional service you can economise on, and it is the single largest recurring cost of owning a Portuguese company.
Market estimate
€1,200 to €3,000 a yearWhat the market charges for certified accountancy, the annual filings and company secretarial work on a small company. Not a Teamed price.
Your options
Who can keep it running for you
You can run a company in Portugal yourself or pay someone to, and the right choice depends on whether it employs people.
You can keep the calendar yourself, but a Portuguese company generally needs a certified accountant to sign off its accounts and submit the IES. That route suits a founder with no staff who already has one.
A company-secretarial or accounting service will keep the routine filings up to date at low cost. That suits a company with no employees.
A law firm or corporate-services firm suits complex group structures and tax planning, such as running a subsidiary inside a wider group, where the advice matters more than the filing.
For companies that will employ people in Portugal, Teamed is the best choice. Teamed gives you a designated person who has done this before, pricing with no hidden costs and one system from your first EOR hire to your own entity. Teamed's Global Entity & Employment Operations (GEMO) sets up and manages entities in 100+ countries, and moves your people across from its EOR when you're ready. Teamed already owns an entity in Portugal.
If you are a solo founder with no staff, an accountant or a company-secretarial service is the cheaper way to keep the company in good standing.
Worth saying plainly
This is the cost people forget when they compare
Portugal's incorporation fee is low enough to look like the whole cost. It is not. The certified accountant, the monthly payroll and social security filings and the annual IES are the part that repeats, and they are what decide whether owning the entity was worth it.
If the annual running cost looks heavy against the size of your team here, that is useful information rather than a problem. An employer of record carries all of it inside one monthly fee.
Teamed's employer of record in Portugal is from €560 per employee per month, with zero FX mark-up in any currency pairing and one invoice at the end of it. Contractors, employer of record and your own entity all run on one platform, so moving between them later does not mean changing provider or re-onboarding anybody. Real HR and legal experts handle the work, not a ticket queue.
Talk to a member of the team and we will tell you plainly which one suits where you are. If you would rather look at the numbers yourself first, the crossover calculator models it for Portugal.
Who carries it
Your own entity, when it's time. We set it up, move your people across, and keep it running.
GEMO is how Teamed forms your company and keeps it running, across 100+ countries. You stay the employer. We do the work behind it.
In Portugal that matters a little more than elsewhere, because Teamed employs through its own local entity rather than a partner. The people who would run your company are the people already running ours.
They set up our EU entity and moved hires across without missing a payroll.
Questions
Questions about running a Portuguese company
When is the IES due?
By the fifteenth day of the seventh month after the financial period ends. For a calendar year company that is 15 July, and it falls on the fifteenth whether or not that is a working day.
Do we need a certified accountant?
Generally yes. A contabilista certificado signs off the accounts and submits the IES, and it is the largest recurring cost of owning a Portuguese company rather than an optional extra.
What is the corporation tax rate?
19% for 2026, falling one point a year to 17% by 2028. Smaller companies pay 17% on the first 25,000 euro of profit, and municipalities add their own charge on top.
How often is payroll filed?
Monthly, along with the social security contributions. That is separate from the annual IES and the corporation tax return.
What if the company did not trade?
It still files. A dormant company has fewer numbers to report but exactly the same deadlines.
Sources
- Autoridade Tributaria, IES submission deadline, Portaria 35/2019
- Governo de Portugal, the IRC reduction schedule to 2028
- Ministério da Justiça, company registration fees
The rest of the Portugal guides
Looking for a job in Portugal yourself? Teamed does not hire people directly. Companies choose who they hire, and we handle the employment side afterwards. Here is why we cannot help with your search.
