comunhão de bens
Published 4 November 2026, 03:07
comunhão de bens (spouses' joint property)
A marital property regime in which what the spouses acquire belongs to them jointly rather than in shares. There is comunhão de adquiridos, where what is acquired after the wedding becomes joint property (the default if there is no prenuptial agreement), and comunhão geral, where everything is joint. The regime is shown on the marriage certificate and in the notarial deed of purchase, and it matters for more than family disputes: when buying a home, it determines how IMT is calculated if one spouse is tax resident in Portugal and the other is not.
Where you come across it. The marriage certificate, the escritura for a flat, tax calculations when buying a home.
The Portuguese default regime is not the same as the one recorded for a marriage concluded in another country: which regime counts as yours here is determined separately, so it is worth checking this on paper in advance.