NHR tax savings calculator

What this compares

Two calculations, run on the same income. On one side, the ordinary IRS scale for 2026. On the other, the flat rate the legacy regime applied to that category of income. The difference is the saving — but only in the narrow case where the income type qualifies.

The ordinary side

Employment income is reduced by the specific deduction of 8.54 × the IAS before tax. With the 2026 IAS of €537.13, that is €4587.09. What remains is taxed across nine brackets running from 12.5% to 48% (Article 68 of the IRS code, in the wording given by Lei n.º 73-A/2025). Pensions pass through the same scale but without the employment deduction.

Above €80,000 the solidarity surcharge adds 2.5% on the slice between €80,000 and €250,000, and 5% above that. It applied under the legacy regime too, which is a detail people planning around a flat 20% often miss.

The legacy side

Qualifying Portuguese employment and self-employment income was taxed at a flat 20%. Most foreign pensions were taxed at 10%. Other foreign income — dividends, interest, capital gains, rents — could be exempt rather than flat-rated, provided the source country was not on Portugal's blacklist and, where a treaty applied, the income could be taxed there. That exemption is the part that produced the headlines, and it is the part this tool deliberately does not model: it depends on the type of income, the treaty, and the taxpayer's own circumstances.

Who can still use it

Registration closed to most new arrivals from 2024. Transitional provisions protect people who already held the status, and a narrow set of situations covered by the legislation that closed the door. Anyone arriving now is looking at the ordinary scale or at IFICI, a separate incentive with its own qualifying activities and registration deadline. IFICI is not NHR with a new name, and treating it as one is the most common planning error we see.

Why the tool asks you to confirm eligibility

Eligibility under the legacy regime is a question about your history, not a question about your income. Two people earning exactly €60,000 can sit on opposite sides of it: one registered before the deadline and holds the status, the other is arriving this year with no route in at all. No calculator can read that from a number, so this one asks you to state it, and shows you loudly what happens if you tick the box without a legal basis. The checkbox does not create eligibility. It only changes which arithmetic you see.

What happens if you are not eligible

You get the ordinary progressive bill, which is the honest answer for most people reading this in 2026. That is not a reason to stop planning: it is a reason to plan with the real number rather than the one that made headlines between 2009 and 2023. The ordinary scale is progressive, so the effective rate on a mid-range income is far below the top marginal rate.

The limits of this estimate

The comparison covers one income stream at a time. Real returns combine employment, dividends, rent and capital gains, each treated differently, and treaty relief can change the answer again. It also ignores the foreign tax you may still owe where the income arises: a Portuguese exemption under the legacy regime did not necessarily remove a filing obligation at home, and for US taxpayers it rarely did. Use this to understand the shape of the difference — not to decide whether to move.