Almost 25 thousand emigrants have already returned to Portugal to take advantage of tax discounts

Since January 1, 2019, 24,500 emigrants have definitively returned to Portugal on the ride of the Regressar Program, a regime that gives them a 50% discount on taxes on income from work for a period of five years, Jornal de Notícias reported this Monday (JN).

According to JN, the Portuguese who returned were spread across 106 countries. Those who most seek the program to return are emigrants in Switzerland, France and the United Kingdom, in that order.

Next, in smaller numbers, are those residing in Brazil, Venezuela, Germany, Angola, Spain, Luxembourg, Belgium and the United States.

Of the returning emigrants, 37% have higher education and 75% are between 25 and 44 years old. JN notes that the majority of workers still have several years of contributions ahead of them, thus being able to offset the more than 100 million euros invested by the State in this support.

“The greatest number of returns occurs in countries with better salaries than ours, because life there is not easy either”, summarizes José Albano Marques, executive director of Regressar, to JN.

Greater publicity boosts applications

The person responsible states that, “in most cases, [estes portugueses] they return to their origins, that is, they have their own home or return to a family home”.

In effect since 2019 and until 2026, the Regressar Program is increasingly popular. Last year alone, around nine thousand emigrants were covered by this support, equivalent to 37% of the total.

“It was a year of a lot of work and dedication, but it is worth seeing so many Portuguese people fulfilling their dream of returning to the country”, declares the executive director.

The increase in applications is largely due to the publicity efforts made among communities, namely through visits by government officials and technicians abroad, which has made the program better known.

“We have a monthly average of 350 applications, but there have been 400 for months. There are more and more Portuguese people wanting to return”, he concludes.