Portugal to reintroduce tax breaks for skilled foreigners | Hacker News Reader

Portugal to reintroduce tax breaks for skilled foreigners

ft.com

30 pointsWWWMMMWWW21 comments

Not a terrible offer, but I argue Spain is a better value if you have a choice.

How so?

I would love to move to Spain one day but their current tax structure seems crazy for a self employed techie. Is there a 'hack' I am missing?

I'm a self employed techie from Sweden living in Spain since a decade, what exactly is supposed to be crazy? I've felt like most things been pretty straightforward.

Of course it would feel normal for a Swede.

The taxes are outrageous.

LE: Your income tax is ~47% over 60k/yr just so everyone knows what we’re talking about.

Ah, the complaint is merely about the taxes being high? Meh, I like to have infrastructure that doesn't fall apart + healthcare available for everyone, so hard to complain about it. It's just money after all.

(For what it's worth, I barely worked professionally in Sweden so I wasn't really used to anything tax related before I moved to Spain, but it probably colored my perspective, yeah)

To be fair I compare Spain to Switzerland where I currently live and other than the weather and maybe the mentality everything my tax money would be used for is argueable worse than here but costs 3-4 times as much.

(I didn't really earn money before I lived in Switzerland either. It's hard to imagine switching from maybe 13% tax on my income to 50% plus wealth tax)

As an American, I find this very reasonable for the value per sibling comment.

Have you ever lived in Spain so you can accurately assess said value?

Yes, I have, as I have young children and need to raise them somewhere more humane than the US. Portugal and Spain were the options, and Spain was what we preferred after living in both.

Fair enough, I’ve lived in Spain as well, no children though.

I am not ignorant of the cost you surface wrt taxes, but taking into account my total US tax burden when you add in insurance and medical expenses for a family of four, cross jurisdiction tax credits for taxes I would pay in Spain, as well as the improved quality of life around work life balance, life pace, safety of living a car free life (walking or riding bicycles primary for transportation), and so on, it is a net positive for our situation. I admit others must perform their own assessment to understand if a potentially favorable outcome awaits them.

If you want to grind and become wealthy, it’s not the place to be; it’s a place to live. As always, be mindful what you’re optimizing for.

Other comments relate the high income tax, but Spain also has a "impuesto de patrimonio" wealth tax, which forces you to declare all worldwide assets.

Even if the current rates are low, they may (will) rise. It is surveillance masquerading as taxation, until the rates go up and then your are trapped, gutted and left for dead.

https://www.spainmadesimple.com/finance/wealth-tax-in-spain/...

Portugal is gorgeous and people and their culture fantastic.

But it is very expensive relatively to salaries.

The climate and geography is also a plus. Something you usually have to give up on in most of Europe

And yet, skilled natives get no breaks whatsoever and have to find work abroad.

Natives tend to have local support networks (family and friends) help with money, material help and connections. Foreigners lack safety nets.

From a government point of view, you can select the best foreigner candidates (eg pick 1 doctor out of 10 candidates). That can't be done with locals (good and bad doctors want jobs)

This is maybe true in the abstract but is entirely different from the on the ground reality in Portugal. It’s a lot more complicated in reality but generally speaking citizens have less advantages and opportunities than you might expect in key areas when all is said and done.

From a government point of view, you can also pick the best native candidates. It's not rocket science.

The other ruinous tax breaks also cover millionaires under 35. 1 billion euros per year given to rich people.

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