Expat Academy

Courses

Retire to Portugal on US income

Become a Portuguese tax resident, keep your US accounts, and understand both tax bills.

For Americans who will live in Portugal most of the year: when Portuguese residence starts, what Portugal and the US each tax on Social Security, IRAs, 401(k)s, Roth accounts, HSAs and a brokerage account, how the US-Portugal treaty credits work, what to do before you move, the D7 visa, inheritance and property taxes, the Portuguese return, healthcare and renting a home.

Twenty-nine lessons in three parts: the Core, Track B (living under two tax systems) and Portugal. Calculators: the Portugal tax estimator, the account comparison, the year-of-move planner, the visa checker, the two-home budget, the day counter and a pre-move checklist.

Try it first: C1 The four kinds of "residence", 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 course workbook

    The Portugal tax estimate item by item, the two-home budget, the D7 check, currency stress, an accounts register, the pre-move checklist and the calendar, with one exchange-rate cell.

  • Course book (PDF) Portugal course book

    Every lesson of the Core, Track B and Portugal, with the worked examples.

Printable guides and checklists (11)

  • Checklist (PDF) Your pre-move checklist for Portugal

    Before your arrival date, in order, with the tax moves marked.

  • Calendar (PDF) Your Portuguese compliance calendar

    Every US and Portuguese deadline in date order.

  • 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.

  • Checklist (PDF) Coming home checklist

    Ending residence abroad and restarting a US tax home.

  • 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: 29 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 B: becoming tax resident abroad

For the student who will live abroad most of the year and become tax resident there while keeping a US domicile: when residence starts, the years before the move, a pre-move checklist, the treaty, income taxed twice but paid once, wealth and inheritance, reporting, the visa, a long-term home, public healthcare, withdrawal order, the yearly calendar and coming home.

Module 1: Before you move (3 lessons)
  1. B1 When your residence starts
    France and Portugal tax you from the day you arrive; Spain treats you as resident for the whole year or not at all. Your move date changes your first two tax years.
  2. B2 The years before the move
    While only the US taxes you, fill low brackets with Roth conversions or realize gains at 0%. The planner shows how much, and what it costs.
  3. B3 Cutting state domicile cleanly
    A Track B mover needs a US domicile in a state without income tax, with enough real ties to stand up, and a clean break from the old state.
Module 2: Two tax systems (1 lessons)
  1. B8 Reporting your US accounts abroad
    The FBAR in reverse. Your new country wants a list of your US accounts every year, and the penalties are per account.
Module 4: Year by year (1 lessons)
  1. B14 Coming home
    Many Track B retirees come back, often around Medicare age for a younger spouse or when health needs grow. Ending residence abroad cleanly, and restarting at home.

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 (2 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.
Module 2: Tax (6 lessons)
  1. P4 Portuguese income tax on your US income
    Portugal taxes residents on worldwide income: pensions and IRA money at a scale from 12.5% to 48%, after a specific deduction, and interest, dividends and gains at a flat 28%. The old NHR regime is closed to new retirees.
  2. P5 The US-Portugal treaty, and the Social Security question
    Portugal credits only the US tax it would let the US charge a non-citizen; the US credits the rest. On US Social Security the treaty's wording is read two ways, and the difference is often thousands of dollars a year.
  3. P6 Each account in Portugal, and the moves to make before you go
    In Portugal IRA money is taxed on a steep scale and investment income at a flat 28%, and Roth and HSA money get no special treatment. What each account costs, and what to do while only the US taxes you.
  4. P7 Inheritance, gifts and property taxes in Portugal
    Portugal has no wealth tax and no inheritance tax for spouses, children and parents, only a 10% stamp duty for other heirs. Property brings IMI each year and AIMI on high values. What that means for your estate plan.
  5. P8 Your Portuguese return, Annex J and the yearly calendar
    The Portuguese return (Modelo 3) is filed from 1 April to 30 June for the previous year, with foreign income and foreign bank accounts on Annex J. With the US return and the FBAR, here's the year.
  6. P9 Your pre-move checklist for Portugal
    Everything to do before you become a Portuguese tax resident, in order: the tax moves that only work before your arrival date, the NIF, the bank account and the D7 file, and your first weeks in Portugal.
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.