The prime minister said on Wednesday that the government is reviewing the continuity of the golden visa regime for obtaining a residence permit in Portugal, admitting its enforcement may no longer be justified.
António Costa spoke to journalists at the end of a nearly two-hour visit to the Web Summit exhibition space in Feira Industrial de Lisboa (FIL), after being asked about the special tax regime for the so-called “digital nomads”.
The Prime Minister defended the continuity of the policy to attract investors in Portugal, especially in the technological field, but he made a distinction with regard to the golden visa regime, where a residence permit is obtained in the country after, for example, the purchase of a real estate of high value.
“There are programs that we are currently re-evaluating and one of them is the Golden Visa, which has probably already fulfilled the function it was supposed to do and which is no longer justified at this point,” the executive branch said. side the Minister of Economy, António Costa Silva.
In the presence of journalists, Prime Minister has not yet specified a concrete timetable for the possible end of the gold visas – a measure demanded by the political left, especially the Left Bloc, which sees this regime as a factor in the deterioration of housing prices and a source of problems of the judiciary for suspected money laundering.
“When you evaluate, you put all the hypotheses. After you complete the evaluation, decisions are made — and the hypotheses become decisions. We are currently evaluating whether gold visas make sense, but there are others [regimes] that still make sense,” said António Costa, citing “the Regressar program” as an example.
“This is a program in which we give generous support in fiscal matters so that the Portuguese who had to emigrate return to the country,” he added.
The deputy of the Left Bloc (BE), Mariana Mortágua, has already responded to the Prime Minister’s statements about the possibility of ending the golden visa regime.
“Probably already fulfilled the function it was supposed to fulfill”. Oh, it is fulfilled! Let’s see how they vote on the budget or if it’s just another ad with no proposal,” the BE deputy wrote on the social network twitter.
“Probably already fulfilled the function it was supposed to fulfill”. Oh, it is fulfilled! Let’s see how they vote on the budget or if it’s just another announcement without a proposal. https://t.co/sRIasQfxGO
— Mariana Mortagua (@MR Mortagua) Nov 2, 2022
News updated at 13:03
Source: DN
