How to open an atividade and work on recibos verdes

Check whether you really need an atividade

If your services are planned and will be repeated, register as a Trabalhador Independente (self-employed). For a single, genuinely occasional transaction an ato isolado (one-off transaction) may do, but you cannot use it for regular work.

Before registering, check whether your profession is regulated. Some kinds of work require a licence, membership of a professional body or compulsory Seguro de Acidentes de Trabalho (workplace accident insurance). As a general rule, this insurance is compulsory for the self-employed too.

And a separate case: when you don't need an atividade at all, but you are asked to open one. If you work at someone else's premises, with someone else's tools and to someone else's schedule, and are paid a set amount at set intervals, then under Article 12 of the Labour Code this is an employment relationship, whatever the document is called. In Portugal this kind of disguise has its own name, falsos recibos verdes, and for the employer it is a very serious offence. The same goes for being asked to issue an ato isolado for a month of work: a one-off transaction by definition cannot be ongoing and repeated. What you are entitled to with proper paperwork, and where to go if you are not given a contract: The employer won't give you an employment contract.

Choose your CIRS and CAE codes

A CIRS code (profession code for IRS) is usually chosen for professions listed in the table under Article 151 of the CIRS: consultants, programmers or translators, for example. A CAE code (economic activity code) is used for all other kinds of business. You can register several codes, but one must be the main one. Don't add codes ‘just in case’: licences, IVA, the IRS coefficient and insurance can all depend on them.

CAE Rev.4 has applied since 1 January 2025. When filing IRS for an earlier year, you may need the code from the previous version that applied in that year. If your old CAE was split into several new ones, check your atividade details and, if necessary, file a Declaração de Alterações (declaration of changes).

Get access to the government systems

You will need your NIF (tax number), an up-to-date tax address and a password for the Portal das Finanças (tax portal). Have ready in advance your IBAN, a description of your services, the CIRS or CAE codes you have chosen, your expected turnover to the end of the calendar year and the countries where your clients are.

A NISS (social security number) is not always required for the online registration itself: the Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira (tax authority) passes the details on to Segurança Social (social security). But you will then need to get a NISS and access to Segurança Social Direta (the social security online account). Under simplified accounting, a separate business account is usually not a condition for opening an atividade, although a bank may ask for your Declaração de Início de Atividade (proof of starting activity) and the recibos verdes you have issued.

Open your atividade on the Portal das Finanças

File a Declaração de Início de Atividade (declaration of start of activity) before you start working regularly. On the Portal das Finanças, find the section for starting an activity and enter the date, your main and additional codes, expected turnover, where your clients are and your IVA regime. You can also file the declaration at a Serviço de Finanças (tax office).

Once submitted, download the Comprovativo de Início de Atividade (proof of start of activity) and check every field. Online registration itself is free. Pay particular attention to the IVA regime: choosing the quarterly regime by mistake means you have to file returns even when you have no transactions.

If you start a business while living in the interior of the country, this date matters for a second reason: it starts the 180 days within which you apply for a one-off payment from the employment service for moving inland — €3,759.91 in 2026, plus 20% for each family member who moves with you and €805.70 for moving your belongings. The conditions: your own full-time job, your home and workplace on the list of interior territories, and 12 months of living there. Details: Payment for moving to the interior.

The bank account they ask for when you register is for tax refunds, not for paying tax

The declaration of start of activity has a field for an IBAN, and it leaves people stuck for months: they wait for a Portuguese account to be opened and don't open their atividade. There's no need to wait. The tax authority uses this account to refund overpaid tax and pay you any benefits due — it does not require you to pay from it. You can give any European account in your name and change it later in your personal details on the portal. Money from clients can also go anywhere: where you keep your account is none of the tax authority's business (conversations from 2024–⁠2026, the same answer year after year).

A separate trap is the ‘IBAN pendente’ status: the account has been entered but not confirmed, and the tax authority sends a letter saying the IBAN is unconfirmed. The fix is through e-balcão on the Portal das Finanças: attach a statement showing your name, address and account number, and write that it is for manual confirmation (April 2026). The request can take months: in April 2025 someone with a Lithuanian Revolut account waited more than a month and never got an answer. While the IBAN is unconfirmed, your activity carries on as normal, but a refund of overpaid tax can get stuck — and people find this out in the year they actually overpay.

What to do straight after opening your atividade: check the status of your IBAN in your account, and don't change it without good reason — every change starts the confirmation all over again.

“you can give the IBAN of any bank to open as self-employed, the two things in your question have absolutely nothing to do with each other. for self-employment it doesn't matter what you put, and the bank doesn't care that you're self-employed (only if it's a pile of recibos to prove an activity that's been going for ages).”

Translated from Russian; the original is at the link

banksdeportugal06.08.2025

“Same thing happened to me. You need to send them a statement from your account via e-balcão (with your address, name and iban on it) and say it's for manual confirmation of the iban”

Translated from Russian; the original is at the link

taxinportugal23.04.2026

A personal account at a digital bank and working on recibos: where the chats disagree

Many people run their self-employment through Wise or Revolut because they can't get a Portuguese account opened. Formally this doesn't break any tax rules: the tax authority doesn't care which account you are paid into. But the bank itself has its own rules, and this is where the chats disagree.

Revolut's terms of use state plainly that a personal account cannot be used for business purposes: a freelancer, self-employed person or sole trader needs at least the Pro plan. In the same conversation in June 2026, someone else replies that they asked support and were not told of any obligation to switch to Pro — in other words, the terms and what support says don't match. We won't take sides: just know that the bank has formal grounds to close or restrict the account.

The practical consequence is simple. A client who pays into a personal account at a digital bank is paying into an account the bank is entitled to close one day — and then the recibos you have issued will go unpaid at the worst possible moment. That's another reason, besides the tax authority, why a Portuguese account for your activity is more reliable.

“The User may not use this account for business purposes. If the User intends to use their Revolut account for business purposes, they need to request a Revolut Pro account or a Revolut Business account.”

Translated from Portuguese; the original is at the link

reciboverde01.06.2026

“They just keep sending emails offering to switch this service on, but I think I even asked their support and there's no obligation to use Revolut Pro.”

Translated from Russian; the original is at the link

reciboverde01.06.2026

Sort out IVA before your first invoice

With a small turnover, the exemption under artigo 53.º do CIVA (Article 53 of the IVA Code) may apply. In 2024 the threshold was €14,500, and from 2025 it is €15,000 per calendar year; in 2026 the threshold is €15,000. The amount alone is not enough: the type of transactions, the accounting regime and the other conditions of Article 53 also count. If you go over the threshold, report the change on the Portal das Finanças — when you switch to IVA depends on how far over you go and the circumstances.

For services to foreign clients, the rules depend on the country, the client's status and the type of service. A B2B service to a company outside Portugal is often not subject to Portuguese IVA under artigo 6.º do CIVA (Article 6 of the IVA Code), but the correct grounds must be chosen on the invoice. Working with a company in the EU may require checking its VAT number in VIES, a Declaração Recapitulativa (recapitulative statement) and additional IVA returns. Different rules apply to private individuals, electronic services and sales of goods.

Issue electronic recibos verdes

On the Portal das Finanças, use a Fatura-Recibo (invoice-receipt) if the service and the payment happen at the same time. If the client will pay later, first issue a Fatura (invoice) and, once you have been paid, a Recibo (receipt). Enter the client, their country and tax number, the date of the service, the amount, the correct CIRS or CAE code, the IVA regime and the grounds for exemption, if one applies.

With a Portuguese client, there may be retenção na fonte de IRS (IRS withheld at source). You can be exempt if you meet the conditions of artigo 101.º-B do CIRS (Article 101-B of the IRS Code); the threshold applied in 2026 is linked to the limit in Article 53 of the CIVA and is €15,000. A foreign client usually does not withhold Portuguese IRS. A document issued by mistake can be cancelled on the portal and issued again, but it is better to do this straight away and keep a note of why it was corrected.

Keep track of your Segurança Social contributions

When you open an activity for the first time, compulsory enrolment in the Trabalhadores Independentes (self-employed) scheme usually starts on the first day of the 12th month after your atividade began. Before that, you can voluntarily ask to start paying earlier. If it is not your first time or you have restarted an activity, the rules may differ.

Once you are in the system, file a Declaração Trimestral (quarterly declaration) in January, April, July and October for the previous three months. For services, Segurança Social usually takes 70% of your takings as rendimento relevante (relevant income) and applies a contribution rate of 21.4%; you can adjust the result within the permitted limits. The contributions due are paid monthly between the 10th and 20th of the following month. With very low or zero income, a minimum contribution of €20 a month may be charged; in some cases, after a period of such payments, you can get an exemption.

File your annual IRS and keep your documents

Income from recibos verdes is declared as category B in IRS (income tax), usually on Anexo B (Annex B). The return is filed between 1 April and 30 June of the following year. A recibo verde does not mean IRS has already been paid: the tax authority works out the final amount after the annual return, taking into account your total income, family situation, amounts withheld and deductions.

Under the regime simplificado (simplified regime), not necessarily all your takings are taxed: the coefficient depends on the activity. For many professional services it is 0.75, but other coefficients apply to other transactions. Part of the assumed expenses has to be backed by invoices with your NIF and correctly classified in e-Fatura. Check that the codes match across your atividade, your recibos and Anexo B, especially after the switch from CAE Rev.3 to CAE Rev.4.

Keep your contracts, bank statements, invoices, recibos, and IVA and Segurança Social returns. If you stop working, file a Declaração de Cessação de Atividade (declaration of end of activity), usually within 30 days, and then file the remaining returns for the last period.

For the self-employed, the balance due on the annual IRS is usually the biggest bill of the year: payments on account rarely cover it, and social security contributions are paid separately. If the amount is more than you can manage, it can be split into monthly payments — you must apply within 15 days of the deadline, on the tax portal.