The certified startup route into IFICI
Board seats count, and this is the one category with no degree requirement and no profession list. The certification does all the work.
IFICI, the regime that replaced NHR, treats this category unlike the others. Ordinance 352/2024/1 sends employment positions and board seats in companies certified as startups under Law 21/2023 to Startup Portugal for certification. The qualification minimum that governs the highly qualified categories, a doctorate or a degree plus three years, does not extend to this one. What matters is that the company holds the certification and that the seat actually pays you.
- 20%Flat rate on the Portuguese work income the role generates
- Law 21/2023The certification the company must hold
- No minimumNo qualification level and no Annex I profession for this category
- Every yearThe seat has to keep producing eligible income
Three things have to be true, and only one of them is about you
Most of the risk in this route sits with the company, not with the director. That is unusual, and it is why the diligence runs the other way round.
Board seats are named in the text.
Article 2 of the ordinance lists, for this category, employment positions and members of corporate bodies in entities certified as startups under Law 21/2023, with Startup Portugal as the certifying entity. Board seats are not an interpretation of the regime. They are written into it.
Ordinance 352/2024/1, Article 2(2)(f)The company has to already be certified.
Startup status under Law 21/2023 is a formal recognition granted by Startup Portugal, not a description a company can adopt for itself. If the company is not certified when you take the seat, the category does not apply, however innovative the business is.
Law 21/2023, Article 2An unpaid seat gives you nothing.
IFICI applies a flat 20% to net employment and self employment income from the eligible activity, and the regime requires eligible income in each year of the window. A board seat with no remuneration produces no such income, so there is nothing for the rate to apply to and nothing to satisfy the annual test with.
Autoridade Tributária, IFICI information leafletWhat “certified startup” actually requires
Law 21/2023 sets cumulative conditions. All of them have to hold at once, and the company confirms every three years that they still do.
- Age
- Trading for less than ten years
- Size
- Fewer than 250 employees and annual turnover not above €50 million
- Presence in Portugal
- Headquarters or permanent representation in Portugal, or at least 25 employees in Portugal
- Independence
- Not the result of a transformation or split of a large company, and no large company holding a majority stake, directly or indirectly
- Innovation, route one
- An innovative company under the criteria of Ordinance 195/2018, or recognised by the Agência Nacional de Inovação as carrying out research and development
- Innovation, route two
- At least one completed venture capital round from an entity supervised by the CMVM or an equivalent international authority, or quasi capital investment from a certified business angel or through IAPMEI
- Innovation, route three
- Investment received from Banco Português de Fomento or from funds it manages
- Who grants it, and for how long
- Startup Portugal, on prior notification through the public services portal, with confirmation every three years that the conditions still hold
This is a real role, not a structure
The route is attractive precisely because it is narrow: a certified company, a remunerated seat, and income arriving every year. Anyone offering a board seat as a product, without a real mandate and without the company holding certification, is selling you an assessment risk rather than a tax regime. The diligence that matters here is on the company.
Common questions
The ones we answer on almost every call, and the ones the market most often gets wrong.
Do I need a degree to qualify through a certified startup?
No. The qualification minimum of level 8 of the European Qualifications Framework, or level 6 with three years of experience, applies to the highly qualified professions that the tax authority recognises directly. It does not extend to the certified startup category.
Does a non executive seat count?
The ordinance refers to members of corporate bodies without distinguishing executive from non executive. What it does not do is waive the income condition: the seat has to generate employment or self employment income for the regime to have anything to apply to, in every year of the window.
The company is innovative but not certified. Can we still use this?
Not through this category. Certification under Law 21/2023 is the condition, and Startup Portugal grants it. The company can apply, but until it holds the status the route is closed. Depending on the facts, the R&D or exporting company categories may be open instead.
What if the company loses its certification while I hold the seat?
The benefit depends on the conditions continuing to be met, so a year in which they are not is a year you do not benefit. You can resume in any remaining year of the ten, and moving to another eligible activity within six months counts as no break at all.
Can I combine this with a Golden Visa?
They are separate instruments. The Golden Visa is a residency permit and does not require Portuguese tax residency; IFICI only applies once you are a Portuguese tax resident. Holding both is possible, and the sequencing is worth planning rather than discovering.
Talk to us
We advise founders, investors and executives on both sides of this: the tax position and the residency route, together rather than separately.
