Expat Academy

Courses

Spend part of the year in Portugal

Live months in Portugal each year, stay a US tax resident, and keep it that way.

For Americans who keep their home in the US and spend part of every year in Portugal: the 90-day limit, the Golden Visa's seven days a year, Portugal's residence tests including the habitual-home test, owning or renting a home as a non-resident, banking, healthcare when Medicare doesn't pay, and what the months abroad do to your US tax and Medicare premiums.

Twenty-five lessons: the Core, Track A (staying a US tax resident) and the Portugal lessons for part-year residents. Calculators: the Portugal residence check, US tax and Medicare for Track A, the two-home budget and the day counter.

Try it first: C1 The four kinds of "residence", A1 The day-count trap, P1 Portugal's residence tests (free).

What you keep

Download these while your access lasts: they're yours to keep, to print, and to take to your attorney and CPA. PDFs carry your name.

  • Workbook (Excel) Portugal part-year workbook

    Your days log, the two-home budget, US tax, state tax and Medicare surcharges, and the yearly checklist.

  • Course book (PDF) Portugal part-year course book

    Every lesson of the Core, Track A and the Portugal lessons for part-year residents.

Printable guides and checklists (11)

  • Guide (PDF) Staying non-resident in Portugal

    The Track A playbook for Portugal.

  • Checklist (PDF) Your Portuguese year

    Before and during each season, and the home's yearly taxes.

  • Checklist (PDF) Evidence of your US ties

    What to keep, year by year, to show your life is centred in the US.

  • Comparison (PDF) Spain, Portugal and France side by side

    Visas, healthcare, residence rules, how each country taxes your US income, wealth, inheritance and paperwork, in one table per topic.

  • Guide (PDF) The four kinds of residence

    Immigration status, tax residence, state domicile and Schengen days on one page.

  • Guide (PDF) What the IRS still expects

    Form 1040, FBAR, Form 8938, PFICs and the June 15 extension.

  • Checklist (PDF) State domicile checklist

    What to change, file and keep when you move your US domicile.

  • Checklist (PDF) Documents and apostilles

    The papers to gather before you go, and the order to get them in.

  • Fact sheet (PDF) Portugal fact sheet

    The 2026 numbers: the tax scale, the treaty, visas, property and inheritance.

  • Walkthrough (PDF) Your Portuguese forms: Modelo 3 and Annex J

    Where US income and US accounts go.

  • Glossary (PDF) Portuguese glossary

    The Portuguese words on every form, letter and lease, in plain English.

What's inside: 25 lessons

The Core: retiring abroad on US income

What changes for any American who retires abroad on Social Security, IRAs, a 401(k), an HSA and a brokerage account, whichever country and path you choose: the four kinds of residence, what the IRS and your state still expect, your accounts and benefits, money across the border, paperwork, two homes on one budget, healthcare and estate basics.

Module 1: Residence, and what the US keeps (3 lessons)
  1. C1 The four kinds of "residence" Free preview
    Your visa, your tax residence, your US state and your Schengen days are four separate tests, and they can point in four directions.
  2. C2 What the IRS never lets go of
    The US taxes citizens wherever they live. The return, the foreign-account reports and the fund rules all come with you.
  3. C3 Your US state after you leave
    States aren't bound by tax treaties, and some are hard to leave. Your domicile decides whether a state still taxes you.
Module 2: Your income and your accounts (4 lessons)
  1. C4 Your income, source by source
    Social Security, IRA and 401(k) withdrawals, Roth, HSA, dividends, interest and gains each follow their own rule abroad. Here is the grid the country lessons fill in.
  2. C5 Keeping your US accounts open
    Some US brokers restrict or close accounts with a foreign address, and EU rules block buying US funds. Plan where your money will live before you move.
  3. C6 Social Security and Medicare abroad
    Social Security follows you to France; Medicare mostly doesn't. Decide about Part B before you go, because dropping it can cost you later.
  4. C7 Money across the border
    Your income is in dollars and your life in euros. How much the exchange rate moves your budget, how to move money cheaply, and how much to keep in euros.
Module 3: Setting up (2 lessons)
  1. C8 Identity numbers and paperwork
    Each country gives you a tax number before almost anything else works, and wants US documents with apostilles and translations. Here is the order to get them in.
  2. C9 Opening and keeping a local bank account
    Being American makes banking abroad harder because of US reporting rules. How to open an account, and how to stop it being frozen over a missed letter.
Module 4: Living in two places (3 lessons)
  1. C10 Running two homes on one budget
    Some costs follow you; others keep running in the home you've left. Separating them is what makes a two-home budget honest.
  2. C11 Healthcare models compared
    Medicare at home with travel cover, private cover abroad, or the public system there. Which one fits each track, and what each visa demands.
  3. C12 Estate basics across borders
    Wills in two countries, forced heirship, and inheritance tax where you die. The basics now; a full estate module comes later.

Track A: staying a US tax resident

For the student who keeps a home and a life in the US and spends months of each year abroad: the day limits, the visas that don't make you resident, the tests that aren't about days, housing for part of the year and the year-round lease question, local taxes, banking and healthcare as a visitor, US tax and Medicare when the months abroad are paid from an IRA, and the yearly rhythm that keeps you on the US side.

Module 1: Staying on the US side (1 lessons)
  1. A1 The day-count trap Free preview
    Two different limits count your days in Europe, Schengen's 90 in 180 and each country's tax tests, and the EU now counts them for you at the border. How to plan a season around both.
Module 3: Money, papers and health (1 lessons)
  1. A8 Healthcare for months abroad
    Medicare doesn't pay in Europe, Medigap's travel benefit stops after the first 60 days of a trip, and a visa needs its own cover. How to put together insurance for a season.
Module 4: Year by year (1 lessons)
  1. A9 US tax unchanged, budget changed
    As a US tax resident, your federal and state tax don't change because you spend months in Europe. What does change is the money you withdraw to pay for them, and with it your tax, your taxable Social Security and your Medicare premiums.

Portugal

The Portuguese rules in detail: the residence tests, including the habitual-home test, the D7 visa and the Golden Visa, income tax on US income and the treaty credits, how each kind of account is taxed, inheritance and property taxes, the Portuguese return, the NIF and banking, healthcare, the cost of living and renting, and for part-year residents seasons without becoming resident.

Module 1: Residence and visas (3 lessons)
  1. P1 Portugal's residence tests Free preview
    Portugal makes you tax resident with more than 183 days in any 12-month period, or with a home kept as your habitual residence, whatever the days. Residence starts on the day you arrive, so the year splits.
  2. P2 The D7 visa, step by step
    Portugal's passive-income visa: the minimum wage for you, 50% more for a spouse and 30% for each child, about a year of it in a Portuguese bank, a NIF and a home. A 120-day visa, then a two-year permit, renewed for three.
  3. P3 The Golden Visa, and visiting without a visa
    Track A in Portugal: 90 days in 180 as a visitor, or a Golden Visa that asks for only seven days a year in Portugal. What the Golden Visa costs now that real estate no longer qualifies, and why it isn't tax residence.
Module 3: Daily life (4 lessons)
  1. P10 The NIF, the NISS and banking
    Portugal runs on the NIF, your tax number, which you need before almost anything else. What the NIF, the NISS and the user number for healthcare are, when you need a tax representative, and how banks treat Americans.
  2. P11 Healthcare in Portugal
    Residents register with the national health service (SNS) at their local health centre; many also buy private insurance for faster access. The D7 needs insurance until then. Part-year residents use travel cover.
  3. P12 The cost of living in Portugal
    Where the money goes for a retiree in Portugal, how Lisbon, Porto, the Algarve and the interior differ, which costs are lower or higher than at home, and how to build your own budget in euros.
  4. P13 Renting in Portugal
    Portuguese leases for a home you live in run for at least a year and renew automatically; deposits and rent in advance are capped, and rent rises follow an official index. Landlords often ask foreigners for a guarantor or extra rent up front.
Module 4: Part of the year (3 lessons)
  1. P14 Portugal's residence check for seasons
    Two Portuguese seasons can add up to more than 183 days in a 12-month window that crosses the new year, and a home kept as your base can make you resident with far fewer days. How to check your plan.
  2. P15 A Portuguese home as a non-resident
    Owning a home in Portugal without living there brings the IMI property tax, AIMI above €600,000, a NIF and either a tax representative or electronic notifications. Portugal doesn't tax the home's imputed income, but the habitual-home test needs care.
  3. P16 Your Portuguese year
    A Track A year in Portugal, season by season: the 12-month day count, the Golden Visa's days, insurance, banking and the US side. Tick the yearly checklist off as you go.