AN This conclusion comes from the Fiscal Observatory of the European Union (EU), an independent body on community taxation which, in a report released today, indicates that “the most striking trend in European competition is the increase in the number of personal income tax schemes aimed at foreign natural persons “, which have gone from five in 1995 to 28 today.

“A necessary provisional classification that the most harmful are the Italian and Greek individual schemes of high net worth, the high-income scheme of Cyprus and the pension schemes of Cyprus, Greece and Portugal”, explains the EU Tax Observatory.

Concretely, according to the structure, “these schemes have long durations, great fiscal advantages and only aim at a very high reserve or do not have repercussions on real economic activity in the Member State”.

Altogether, these preferential schemes now apply to more than 200,000 beneficiaries in the EU, estimates the independent body, which speaks of total tax costs for the European Union of 4.5 million euros per year.

“This sum is equivalent to the Erasmus program budget”, compares the EU Fiscal Observatory in the report.

In the case of Portugal, the non-habitual residents regime (RNH) was created in 2009 and applies to high-value professionals, but also to pensioners who receive pensions from abroad, including Portuguese people who have worked abroad and who return to Portugal for the reform.

Reformulated in 2012 and amended in 2020, the RNH regime provides for the application of a 10% personal income tax rate on foreign pension resources, in accordance with the most recent amendment.

The RNH also gives workers with professions considered of high attributed value the possibility of benefiting from a special IRS rate of 20%.

Each non-habitual resident can benefit from this tax regime for a maximum period of 10 years.

In the report released today, the EU Tax Observatory notes that “tax competition is increasingly taking the form of preferential or strictly targeted tax regimes, in addition to general rate cuts” at the community level.

For these trends, a framework needed a reform of the European code of conduct “to make it a binding instrument, and the extension of its mandate to personal taxation as well as non-preferential corporate tax regimes leading to generally low levels of taxation of multinationals”.

Furthermore, “in the absence of a coordinated approach – which is always the ideal solution – Member States should consider unilaterally taxing their expatriates, which, under certain conditions, can mitigate the effects of preferential tax regimes on the country. income of natural persons “, yet.

The EU Fiscal Observatory is managed by the Paris School of Economics.

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