When an owner registers a rental contract with Finanças (which, as we’ve discussed previously on this page, can be from 1 day to 30 years in duration), what happens if the tenant doesn’t have a NIF? (NIF is the Portuguese term for the VAT or fiscal number)

This can happen often with digital nomads, for example, who may only want to stay in Portugal a couple of months. So how can we register a contract with no Portuguese NIF? There could be 3 different situations:

1. Tenant has a NIF.

– Whenever the tenant has a Portuguese NIF, whatever the nationality, it has to be specified when the contract is registered.

2. Tenant has no NIF and is fiscally resident in another EU country.

– In this case you must indicate the VAT number of the country of residence. Every EU country has a VAT number, although sometimes this coincides with the national ID card number. You can see the format of other EU countries’ VAT numbers here:

https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/vies/#/faq (Q11)

3. Tenant has no NIF and is fiscally resident in a country outside the EU

– Here you should indicate some other identification document (e.g. passport), and refer to this fact in field 36 of Quadro VIII – “Observações”.