Sovereign - Consultoria Lda.
Parque Empresarial Algarve
8400 Lagoa
Portugal
Telephone Number: +351 282 340 480
Fax Number: +351 282 342 259
E-mail: port@SovereignGroup.com
Managing Director
Nigel Anteney-Hoare
Languages Spoken
English, Portuguese
Registration Number
1344/221299
About Sovereign - Consultoria Lda.
The Portugal office of the Sovereign Group is one of the leading tax advisory firms in Portugal. In addition to tax consultancy and fiscal representation services, our core business is setting up structures to assist with tax planning, succession issues, wealth management, foreign property ownership and cross-border business.
Sovereign Lda is a corporate member of the British-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce in Lisbon, the Portuguese Chamber in London and the Spanish/Portuguese Chamber of Commerce in Lisbon.
We have a team of qualified accountants who can provide specialist tax advice and services to foreign individuals and companies with interests in Portugal, backed up by a strong administrative team.
About Portugal
Background: Portugal was a world power during the 15th and 16th centuries, but during the subsequent centuries lost much of this wealth and status. In the 20th century, following the turbulence of the colonial wars in Africa, there was a peaceful military coup in 1974 which resulted in broad democratic reforms in the country. Portugal became a member of the EU in 1986 and then qualified for the EMU in 1998, subsequently changing the currency from the escudo to the Euro. The current ruling party is the Portuguese socialist party (PS).
Location: Portugal occupies the western part of the Iberian Peninsula and has boundaries with Spain to the North and East. The archipelagos of Azores and Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean are included in the Portuguese territory.
Economy - overview: Portugal's economy was always based on traditional industries such as textiles, cork & wood products, paper manufacturing, porcelain & glass, wine and tourism, however in recent years modern industries have also developed significantly, including oil refineries, petrochemicals, cement production, automotive and ship industries, electrical and electronic industries and machinery. Thanks in the main to EU funding during the late 1990's the infrastructure was improved greatly and Portugal made considerable economic progress since its accession to the EU, due to foreign trade with EU members and the USA. However public spending in latter years has soared out of control necessitating the introduction of a number of austerity measures by the socialist government to reduce and control the budget deficit from 6% of GDP to 2.8% by the end of 2008. This economic situation has come to a head in 2011 with the resignation of the Prime Minister, the necessity to seek funding from the EU and the IMF and national parliamentary elections due to be held in June.
These problems, in addition to various anti-avoidance measures introduced to combat fiscal fraud and tax evasion, have meant a dramatic change to the mind set of the Portuguese business community which will take some time to adjust.
Time
Portugal is on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).