How do I leave Portugal, and in what order?

Leaving Portugal goes smoothly when things happen in the right order. Most steps take days, but your rental notice can run to four months, and a car, a property sale and your pets need planning well ahead.

The order that works

1. 4–5 months before: check your lease and work out your notice date. Get removal and pet transport quotes, and apply for UK transfer of residence relief (form ToR1) before anything ships
2. If you own a home: decide whether to sell, let or keep it, and talk to a lawyer and a certified accountant (contabilista certificado) about the non-resident rules below
3. Your job: resign in writing with the notice your contract needs. If you’re self-employed, pick your last day of trading
4. Your car: sell it and make sure the change of owner is registered, or plan to take it with you
5. Your last weeks: update AIMA and the tax office, appoint a tax representative if you need one, and close contracts
6. After you go: chase your deposit and final pay, and file your last IRS return the next spring

Make a dated version for your own leaving date with the leaving planner on this page.

Your job

• Under article 400 of the Labour Code you can resign without giving a reason by telling your employer in writing at least 30 days ahead if you’ve worked there up to 2 years, or 60 days if longer. A collective agreement or your contract can extend this to up to 6 months for senior or management roles. On a fixed-term contract it’s 30 days, or 15 days if the contract is shorter than 6 months
• If you give less notice, you owe your employer your base pay for the days missing (article 401), so check before you book flights
• Your final pay should include holiday you’ve earned but not taken, with its holiday payment (subsídio de férias), a share of the holiday pay for the year you leave, and a share of the Christmas payment (subsídio de Natal)
• As an employee, your employer ends your social security registration. Download your contribution record before your Portuguese phone stops receiving codes
• Self-employed (trabalhador independente): file a declaration that you’ve stopped trading (cessação de atividade) with the tax office within 30 days of stopping, online on the Portal das Finanças or at an office. Finanças and Social Security share the information, so the end is usually passed on automatically, but contributions only stop from the first day of the next month, and you still declare that year’s income in Annex B of your IRS return

Your rental home

Under article 1098 of the Civil Code, once a third of the lease term (or of its renewal) has passed, you can end it at any time by telling the landlord at least 120 days before the date you want to leave on a lease of a year or more, or 60 days on a shorter one. It ends at the end of a calendar month. To stop it renewing at the end of its term, the notice is 120 days on a term of 6 years or more, 90 days on 1 to 6 years, and 60 days on 6 months to a year. If you give less notice, the lease still ends, but you owe the rent for the missing period. More on notice and your deposit in How do deposits and rental contracts work? and Should we renew our lease or move?

AIMA and your residence card

• The Foreigners Act (Lei 23/2007, article 86) says residents must tell AIMA, the migration agency, about a change of address within 60 days. GOV.UK also says to tell AIMA if your address or other details change
• The law doesn’t set out a step for handing in your card when you simply move away. A permit can be cancelled if you’re away without good reason for 6 months in a row or 8 months in total during a temporary permit, or for 24 months in a row or 30 months within 3 years on a permanent one. If AIMA cancels it, the card is taken back
• If you might come back: under the Withdrawal Agreement, permanent residence held by Britons living in Portugal before 2021 is lost only after more than 5 years in a row away. You can also ask AIMA in advance to justify a longer absence. Get advice before you give anything up

Your tax address and representative

The tax office’s leaflet for foreign citizens says you have 60 days to tell it when a change of address makes you non-resident. You can do this on the Portal das Finanças through the e-balcão service, at a tax office by appointment, or through someone with a power of attorney. A change made online only takes effect when you enter the confirmation code posted to your new address, so allow time for post to the UK.

If you keep a tax link with Portugal, such as a registered car, a property, a job or self-employment, the tax authority says you must within 15 days either appoint a tax representative in Portugal or sign up for one of its electronic notification channels. Non-EU citizens who stay self-employed in Portugal must appoint a representative, who must be registered for VAT. This updates the general rules in How much tax will I pay in Portugal?

Your last IRS return

• Portugal splits the year. Under article 16 of the IRS Code you stop being resident from your last day in Portugal, and you file one return for the resident part and one for the non-resident part (article 57). Both go in between 1 April and 30 June of the next year
• Two exceptions: if you spent more than 183 days in Portugal that year and receive income after you leave that Portugal would have taxed, you can be treated as resident for the whole year, unless that income is taxed abroad at a rate of at least 60% of the Portuguese one. And if you become resident again the following year, you count as resident for the whole year you left
• Losing Portuguese residence counts as selling any cryptoassets you hold (article 10 of the IRS Code). Get advice if you hold any
• If both countries treat you as resident in the same period, the 2025 UK–Portugal tax treaty decides who taxes what: see How do we settle back into the UK?

Your car

IUC (road tax) is charged for the whole year to whoever is registered as the owner, even if you sell it the next month. The buyer has 60 days to register the change of owner. If they don’t, the tax office says you can apply for the registration in the buyer’s name yourself, under a special procedure for verbal sales. To take the car with you, ask IMT to cancel the Portuguese registration for export, using form Modelo 9 with your ID, the registration certificate and proof the car has left the country or a copy of its new registration. The fee is €10 for a car going to a non-EU country such as the UK. In the UK, tell HMRC within 14 days that the car has arrived, then register it with the DVLA.

Keeping or selling a home in Portugal

If you’re UK resident when you sell, the UK can also tax the gain, and you can usually claim relief for the Portuguese tax. If you sell a flat, you need a written statement from the building’s administrator of any condominium charges owed: see What do I need to close before I leave Portugal?

Your belongings and pets

Transfer of residence relief lets you bring household goods, a car and pets into the UK without import duty or VAT if you’ve lived outside the UK for at least 12 months in a row and owned and used the goods for at least 6 months. Apply on form ToR1 and get HMRC’s approval before you ship. For pets, see How do I take my pet back to the UK?