Moving to Portugal From the UK: the 2026/27 Tax Guide

Probably not, but only if you break UK residence under the Statutory Residence Test (SRT). Moving to Portugal does not automatically make you non-UK resident. The SRT is a series of objective tests based on days spent in the UK and your ongoing connections (or 'ties') to it, such as available accommodation, work, and family. Until you fail the relevant tests, HMRC still treats you as UK resident on your worldwide income.

For most people leaving mid-year, the practical levers are the day count and the number of UK ties. Broadly, the more ties you keep, the fewer UK days you are allowed before you become resident again. If you are starting full-time work in Portugal, the 'full-time work overseas' route can give you a relatively clean break, subject to strict limits on UK days and UK workdays.

Run your own numbers with our SRT calculator before you commit to a departure date, then have the result reviewed. The SRT is unforgiving on edge cases, and a handful of UK days either side of a threshold can change the answer for the whole year.

Split-year treatment lets you divide the 2026/27 UK tax year into a UK part and an overseas part, so that from your date of departure you are taxed in the UK only on UK-source income rather than your worldwide income. Without it, you could be UK resident for the whole tax year despite having moved partway through it.

Split-year treatment is not automatic and is not triggered by the P85. You claim it on the SA109 residence pages of your Self Assessment return, and you must identify which of the eight statutory 'cases' applies. The cases most relevant to a UK person moving to Portugal are typically:

• Case 1: you start full-time work overseas during the year.
• Case 2: you are the partner of someone who started full-time work overseas.
• Case 3: you cease to have a home in the UK.
• Case 8: you start to have a home in the UK (this is the arrival mirror, relevant if you ever return).

Each case has its own conditions and its own definition of when the overseas part starts. Getting the case and the split date right matters, because it sets the line between worldwide UK taxation and UK-source-only taxation. This is a point worth confirming on your specific facts.

The two key documents are the P85 and the SA109. Treat them as doing different jobs.

• P85: tells HMRC you have left the UK. It can prompt an in-year refund of PAYE tax if you leave partway through the year having paid tax as though you would be here all year. It is informational and does not, by itself, give you split-year treatment.
• SA109: the residence supplement to your Self Assessment return. This is where you actually declare non-residence and claim split-year treatment for 2026/27. If you are already in Self Assessment, you cannot file a P85 for the year and must use the return instead.

If you are not currently in Self Assessment, leaving the UK with ongoing UK income (rent, for example) will usually pull you into it. Build in time to register, because the registration and filing deadlines do not move just because you have emigrated.

Leaving the UK does not switch off UK tax on UK-source income. The most common items for movers to Portugal are rental income, certain pensions, and UK employment or directorship income for work physically done in the UK.

• UK rental income stays within UK tax. As a non-resident landlord you remain chargeable to UK Income Tax on the profits, and the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme can require tax to be withheld unless HMRC approves you to receive rent gross. See our non-resident landlord guide for the mechanics.
• Selling a UK residential property as a non-resident triggers Non-Resident Capital Gains Tax (NRCGT). You must report the disposal and pay any tax within 60 days of completion, separately from your annual return. Gains can often be calculated from the property's value at 5 April 2015 (residential) rather than original cost, through rebasing.
• UK government service pensions generally stay taxable in the UK under the treaty (covered below), as can some other UK-source streams.

The treaty then decides whether Portugal also taxes the same income and how double taxation is relieved. The default direction of travel for a Portuguese resident is that Portugal taxes your worldwide income, with credit or exemption for tax the UK is entitled to charge.

Yes, if your absence is short. If you were UK resident in at least 4 of the 7 tax years before the year you left, and you return to UK residence within roughly five years (fewer than five complete tax years away), the temporary non-residence rules can bring certain income and gains realised during your absence back into UK tax in the year you return.

This typically bites on things like large capital gains on assets you held before leaving, certain pension lump sums and flexible drawdown, and close-company distributions taken while you were away. The practical lesson is to plan a move to Portugal as a genuine, sustained relocation across the five-year window, and to time any big disposals or extractions with the return rule in mind. If a return to the UK is realistically on the cards, get this stress-tested before you sell or distribute anything significant.

It helps a specific group, and probably not retirees. The original NHR regime, which gave generous exemptions and a flat 10% rate on foreign pensions, is closed to new arrivals. Its successor is IFICI (Incentivo Fiscal a Investigacao Cientifica e Inovacao), commonly marketed as NHR 2.0.

Based on current Portuguese sources, the headline features of IFICI are, subject to local confirmation:

• A 20% flat rate of Portuguese IRS on eligible Portuguese-source employment and self-employment income, instead of progressive rates up to 48%.
• Eligibility aimed at qualified roles in scientific research, technology, innovation, higher education and certain high-value activities, often requiring a relevant degree (EQF level 6 or above) and a qualifying employer or activity.
• You must not have been Portuguese tax resident in the previous five years, and the benefit runs for up to ten consecutive years.
• Possible exemption or relief on some categories of foreign-source income (such as dividends and other passive income), depending on type and source.

The crucial point for British movers: IFICI is a regime for high-skilled workers and innovators, not a retirement regime. Whether you qualify depends entirely on your activity and your employer, and the criteria and approvals are decided in Portugal. Confirm eligibility with a Portugal-qualified adviser before relying on it.

This is where the news is least favourable for retirees and most important to get right. IFICI excludes foreign pensions. So a UK pensioner who becomes Portuguese resident in 2026 will generally pay normal Portuguese IRS on pension income at progressive rates, which for 2026 reach a top national rate of 48% (with a solidarity surcharge of 2.5% to 5% and municipal surcharges possible on higher incomes). The old NHR flat 10% on foreign pensions is gone for new arrivals.

The new UK-Portugal double tax treaty then decides which country gets to tax each pension. Based on the treaty articles, and subject to confirmation on your facts:

• UK private and occupational pensions: under Article 17, taxable only in Portugal once you are Portuguese tax resident. The UK should stop taxing them.
• UK State Pension: also taxed only in Portugal, even though it is paid by the UK government. It falls under the general pensions article, not the government service article.
• UK government service pensions (for example civil service, armed forces, police and many teachers' pensions): under Article 18, generally taxable only in the UK. The exception is where you are a Portuguese national who is not also a UK national: the pension can then be taxed in both countries, with Portugal giving relief for the UK tax. This matters for dual nationals or anyone who naturalises.

Practically, that means most ordinary UK pension income shifts to Portuguese tax at Portuguese rates, while a government service pension usually stays in the UK net. Getting your pension provider's UK tax switched off requires the right treaty claim, supported by proof of Portuguese residence, so expect a transitional period where tax may be collected in both countries until the paperwork catches up.

It modernises a treaty that had been in place since 1968. The UK and Portugal signed a new Double Taxation Convention on 15 September 2025. It entered into force on 29 December 2025 and is now in force. It takes effect for Portuguese tax purposes and for UK taxes withheld at source from 1 January 2026, for UK Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax from 6 April 2026, and for UK Corporation Tax from 1 April 2026. How it applies to your specific income should still be confirmed on your facts.

For a UK person moving to Portugal, the treaty does three useful jobs:

• It allocates taxing rights, so the same income is not taxed in full by both countries. Where both can tax, one side gives a credit for the other's tax.
• It settles the pension question described above, sending private and State pensions to Portugal and generally keeping government service pensions in the UK.
• It interacts with UK-source income such as rent and UK property gains, which the UK generally retains the right to tax, with Portugal giving relief on the same income.

The treaty is the hinge that makes the whole move work without double taxation. Read the UK exit rules and the Portuguese regime together with it, never in isolation.

The following is illustrative only, uses round numbers, and is not advice. Assume 'Daniel', a UK resident, moves to Lisbon on 1 September 2026, becomes Portuguese tax resident, and keeps a let flat in Manchester.

• UK side: Daniel breaks UK residence under the SRT and claims split-year treatment (an arrival/departure case) on his 2026/27 SA109, so from 1 September he is taxed in the UK only on UK-source income. He files a P85 context aside and uses Self Assessment because he has rental income.
• His Manchester rent stays UK-taxable as a non-resident landlord, and he registers under the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme so the agent can pay him gross.
• His personal pension: under the treaty it becomes taxable only in Portugal once he is resident there, at Portuguese progressive rates, because IFICI does not shelter pensions. He arranges to have UK tax switched off via the treaty claim.
• If he sold the Manchester flat after leaving, he would file an NRCGT return and pay any tax within 60 days of completion, with the gain potentially rebased to its 5 April 2015 value.
• If Daniel moved back to the UK within about five years, temporary non-residence rules could revisit certain gains realised while abroad.

Change any fact (full-time work, government pension, no UK property, a quick return) and the answer changes. That is exactly why this should be modelled on your own numbers.

• Model your UK residence position under the SRT and fix a departure date that gives a clean break.
• Identify your split-year case and the split date, and plan to claim it on the SA109 for 2026/27.
• File the P85 if appropriate, and register for Self Assessment if ongoing UK income pulls you in.
• List every UK-source income stream that survives the move (rent, pensions, UK workdays) and check the treaty treatment of each.
• Decide what happens to UK property, and budget for NRCGT and the 60-day report if you plan to sell.
• Confirm Portuguese residency timing, and get a Portugal-qualified adviser to confirm whether IFICI applies to you and how your pensions will be taxed.
• If a return to the UK is possible, plan around the temporary non-residence window before realising large gains.