The Ministry of Finance confirmed today that retirement savings plans will not form part of the €50,000 bank balance reporting scheme due to start in 2017.
This exemption covers residents in Portugal and those living abroad with bank accounts in Portugal.
Retirement savings plans are among the few financial products that will not have to be reported by banks and other financial institutions to the Tax Authority in a scheme that has been branded ‘unconstitutional’ by the national data protection commission.
The savings plan exemption for non-residents was allowed by the previous government but the measure is to be extended to nationals before it comes law next year.
The government, which is still working on the details of the new scheme, has admitted that those with savings plans for their retirement are unlikely to be involved in tax evasion or international terrorism.
The uproar from civil rights groups which claim that banking secrecy is, in effect, over was accompanied by the ‘unconstitutional’ comment from the data protection commission. This has led to an easing of the more draconian aspects of the scheme which at first was to gather information on all bank accounts, whatever the balance.
Realising that a mountain of largely useless data soon would accumulate, the Ministry of Finance has made concessions but insists the scheme will go ahead as it accords with various international obligations to clamp down on tax evasion and the financing of terrorism.
