Starting a business in Portugal: foreigner's guide (2026)

The inaugural World Bank Business Ready (B-READY) Subnational report for Portugal found entrepreneurs can incorporate a limited-liability company in as few as 4.5 days, awarding an average Business Entry score of 94.2 out of 100 across eight assessed cities. The result validated the Empresa na Hora and Empresa Online 2.0 channels as world-class registration infrastructure.

Published 4 December 2023 and effective the next day, this ministerial order operationalised the startup recognition system created by Law 21/2023: founders submit an electronic notification via Gov.pt, receive a digital certificate within 5 days, and appear on a public register of certified startups, triggering access to preferential tax rates, stock-option incentives, and lighter regulatory obligations.

Portugal's Institute of Registries and Notaries (IRN) replaced the 2006-era Empresa Online with a fully rebuilt platform enabling sole traders, Lda, and SA companies to be incorporated in roughly 10 minutes using a Citizen Card or Digital Mobile Key, at fees €15 lower than physical channels, with automatic notification to all relevant authorities.

Law 21/2023 of 25 May created statutory definitions of 'startup' (under 10 years old, fewer than 250 employees, under €50 m revenue) and 'scaleup', established the self-certification regime via Startup Portugal, and introduced enhanced employee stock-option and personal-income-tax-benefit rules, materially improving the regulatory environment for high-growth company formation.

The OECD Product Market Regulation Index 2023 placed Portugal among the most restrictive OECD economies for entry barriers and administrative burdens, ranking it 9th worst of 38 members. The finding intensified political pressure for further deregulation and simplified licensing for new businesses.

This decree abolished mandatory licences, inspections, and authorisations for a broad category of low-risk economic activities — restaurants, retail, personal-care services — replacing them with a simple prior notification, and simultaneously created the Balcão do Empreendedor (Entrepreneur's Desk), an online one-stop shop through which founders could register activity without visiting multiple agencies.

Building on the in-person Empresa na Hora, this decree created a fully online channel for incorporating Lda and SA companies using a digital certificate, cutting average registration time to 1–2 days at a cost €15 lower than physical procedures, with automatic post-registration notification to all statutory authorities integrated into the platform.

The SIMPLEX programme, presented to Parliament in January 2006 and formally launched in March with 333 measures, eliminated mandatory notary deeds for company registrations, replaced four separate mandatory filings with a single unified online submission, enabled trademark registration within one hour, and anchored the Empresa na Hora one-stop shop — earning Portugal OECD recognition as a regional benchmark for public-sector reform.

This landmark decree created the instant in-person company registration regime, slashing average incorporation time from 54 days to under one hour through one-stop-shop desks offering pre-approved company names, model articles of association, and bundled trademark registration ('instant mark'); the World Bank Doing Business 2007 report cited it as one of the most significant business-entry reforms globally, generating €116.6 m in social capital investment in its first 11 months.

Portugal's Commercial Companies Code established the enduring legal framework for all commercial entities — including the Lda (private limited company) and SA (joint-stock company) — defining minimum capital, liability, governance, and mandatory registration obligations that continue to underpin the country's corporate law, subject to numerous subsequent amendments including a reduction of the Lda minimum share capital to €1.