Transfers to offshores increase 10% to €7.7Bn
Transfers to offshore tax havens from Portugal increased by 10% in 2022 to €7.4Bn, with over one-third of these transfers going into Swiss banks.
According to statistics from the Portuguese tax authorities (Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira (AT), a total of 16,141 entities transferred money to countries, territories and regions that Portugal classifies as having a more favourable tax regime.
From the total, around 8,800 were transferred by individuals and the rest (around 7,300) by companies.
They involve transfers of funds from residents and non residents to these low tax jurisdictions which banks have to report to the tax authorities every year using the tax return form Modelo (Form) 38.
According to this data for 2022, the value of transfers exceeded €7,409,492,216, an increase of 10% on the €6,698,118,054 reported in 2021.
Just like in 2021, Switzerland was the main destination of these transfers from both residents and non-residents, with the first group shifting €2.54Bn and the second €1.31Bn.
Hong Kong was the second major offshore destination from Portugal with around €1.22Bn. In third place was the United Arab Emirates (€533 million) and Singapore. (€441 million)
The main reason used for these transfers was ‘cash management transfer’ which was given for €3.5Bn. In total, these transfers involved 109,872 operations.