Portuguese wealth in tax havens: 22% of GDP in 2022, more than half in Switzerland.

According to a report by the European Tax Observatory EU Tax, Portuguese offshore wealth amounted to around 22% of GDP in 2022, one of the highest among EU countries.

Paris is the capital of real estate investment. According to EU Tax, based on a study by an independent tax observatory linked to the Paris School of Economics, the percentage of foreign assets declines from 2020 as a percentage of GDP, but in absolute terms it rises as the economy also grows after the recession caused by the pandemic that year.

With the nominal value of GDP at 239 billion euros last year, 22% is about 53.3 billion euros.''According to the same source, the amount that Spaniards have invested offshore is almost three times that of Portugal, but this reality represents a much larger percentage of Portuguese GDP than of Spanish GDP, where it is half of our figure of 10.6%.

Of the European Union countries included in this atlas of sources of funds (there are also recipient countries such as Luxembourg), Portugal is one of the countries with the highest level of financial investment in favorable geographical conditions as a percentage of GDP. Above Portugal are Denmark, Ireland, Bulgaria and Greece, where according to the same source the fortunes of offshore residents exceed 60% of GDP.

This observatory provides a database with''long-run estimates of countries' taxation levels, disaggregating the components of tax revenues and residents of more than 150 countries, using also OECD and IMF statistics. The data also allows us to determine the allocation of these funds to certain destinations.

National investors favor Switzerland, where funds equivalent to 13% of GDP are located. The rest are spread across the various European geographical zones with 6.5%, Asia with 1.9% and the Americas with 0.94%. The values obtained refer to the financial investments of the Portuguese in stocks, bonds, funds and bank deposits outside the country.

The Tax Observatory also reviews real estate owned through offshore structures in six global destinations.

According to long-term data, Portuguese offshore investment reached its highest value as a percentage of GDP in 2013, the year marked by the most stringent financial adjustment measures and when the economy experienced a severe downturn.

The annual EU Tax report, published on Sunday, also makes a comparative assessment of the tax regimes created by different countries to attract residents with''income. And it concludes that the regime for foreign pensioners is one of the most unsuccessful from a tax perspective, overcome mainly by regimes designed to attract wealthy individuals with incomes over €500,000 in countries such as Greece, Italy, Switzerland and Cyprus. The regime for non-residents working (and which ends in 2024) scores slightly better.

This ranking was based on a weighting of criteria such as benefit duration, income conditions, benefit amount, and requirements (or lack thereof) that participants perform certain occupational activities.

The 2020 data also shows that the average benefit provided by Portugal to retirees and''to workers coming from other countries amounted to 32,616 euros. One of the highest values - sixth - among the 18 analyzed.

The government has announced the end of the regimes for non-residents from 2024, but the number of participants will still grow with an expected record registration this year, entitling to preferred income tax rates for 10 years.