Do Portuguese Tax Residents Have to Declare Foreign Bank Accounts?

• A resident must identify foreign deposit and securities accounts in Anexo J, table 11, even if they earned no income, when they are the holder, the beneficiary or authorised to move the money (art. 63.º-A n.º 8 LGT).
• «Beneficiary» is defined in the law: someone who controls the assets in the account, directly or indirectly, whatever the legal title, even through a nominee or intermediary.
• Table 11 asks for identification only: IBAN and BIC, or the account number where those are not available. It does not ask for a balance.
• Interest, dividends and gains are separate: they go in the income tables with gross amount, foreign tax and country.
• An omission is corrected with a substitute declaration that contains everything, as a first declaration would.

Yes. A Portuguese tax resident must identify foreign deposit and securities accounts in Anexo J, table 11, whether or not they earned anything, if they are the holder, the beneficiary or authorised to move the money (art. 63.º-A n.º 8 of the Lei Geral Tributária). It applies from the day you become resident, so new arrivals often miss it. Next: list every account, with IBAN and BIC or the account number, before you open the Modelo 3. Table 11 identifies the account; interest, dividends and gains go in their own tables. It sits inside the Anexo J guide.

What the law and the AT say

Art. 63.º-A n.º 8 of the Lei Geral Tributária obliges IRS taxpayers to state, in their income declaration, the existence and identification of deposit or securities accounts opened with a financial institution not resident in Portugal, or with a branch located outside Portugal of a resident institution, of which they are holders, beneficiaries or authorised to move. The AT's page on foreign income says the same in plain words: table 11 identifies all deposit or securities accounts, even if they did not generate any income.

The Anexo J instructions add who files. The annex is for resident taxpayers whose household, meaning the taxpayer or the dependants in it, obtained income outside Portugal in the year, or holds such accounts. The annex is individual: each taxpayer lists their own. A dependant's account is therefore your problem too when the dependant is part of your household.

Who counts: holder, beneficiary, or signatory

• Holder: the account is in your name, alone or jointly.
• Authorised to move: you can operate an account that belongs to someone else, for example as a signatory on a parent's or partner's account.
• Beneficiary: art. 63.º-A n.º 9 defines it as the taxpayer who controls, directly or indirectly, and regardless of any legal title, even through an agent, trustee or intermediary, the rights over the assets deposited in the account.

The third limb is the one people overlook. If an account is held in someone else's name but you control what is in it, the law treats you as its beneficiary and you identify it.

Which accounts are in scope

What you write in table 11

The AT's instructions for quadro 11 describe identification only. Each account is identified by its IBAN, up to 34 characters, and its BIC, up to 11 characters. Where the account cannot be identified by IBAN or BIC, you give the account number. The instructions do not ask for a balance, an opening date or an income figure, so do not invent one. Get the IBAN and BIC together before you open the return, not from a banking app while the Modelo 3 is on screen.

Interest, dividends and gains are a different question

Identifying the account does not report what it earned. Foreign interest and dividends go in table 8, capital income, and the sale of shares or quotas in table 9. For each item the AT asks for the gross income before foreign tax, the mandatory social security contributions if any, and the tax paid in the source country, which is credited against Portuguese tax so that the same income is not taxed twice (art. 81.º CIRS, as the AT explains in its FAQ). The AT is explicit that financial income paid into accounts abroad is still declarable: a resident is taxed on worldwide income under art. 15.º CIRS. The full walk-through, with the quadro 8 codes and a worked credit, is in theforeign dividends and interest guide.

For an account held jointly, the AT says each holder declares the income in proportion to their share. A couple with a joint foreign account each list the account in their own annex and each report their share of the income.

Payment apps, digital banks and brokers

The law speaks of accounts of deposit or securities at financial institutions. The AT's public guidance does not list payment, e-money or wallet products either in or out, and this guide will not guess. The right question is what you actually hold, with which legal entity, and where that entity or its branch is. The provider's marketing name does not settle it. A brokerage account is a securities account. For a payment or e-money balance, read the account terms, and if it matters, ask the AT or an adviser and keep a note of the answer.

Accounts in low-tax jurisdictions

A separate rule adds to this. Art. 57.º n.º 7 CIRS requires taxpayers to state assets held in jurisdictions with a clearly more favourable tax regime, including deposit or securities accounts held with entities based there, and the jurisdictions are those on a list approved by ministerial order. Under art. 58.º n.º 3 e), a taxpayer who holds those assets cannot use the general dispensation from filing a return. That provision was added in 2025.

If you left an account out

The AT's Modelo 3 instructions say a substitute declaration is what you file when an earlier declaration for the same year had omissions or inaccuracies. It must contain every element, as if it were a first declaration. The AT does not accept a substitute filled in only in the fields being corrected. Do not wait for next year's return to add an account.

A foreign-account register to keep

Update it when you open or close an account, change broker, or become resident. If you are new to Portugal, the same register belongs in your first-year return.