[tiagod]

That's right.

I've lived in Portugal pretty much my whole life and don't want to leave, working in software development for almost 10 years now. If I had left before 2019 and decided to return now, I would pay IRS taxes on 50% of my income for 5 years, and get access to an exclusive credit line.

If I was a foreign citizen and had never been to Portugal and I had a "profession of high cultural and economic worth", I could purchase a house here, register fiscally as a non-habitual resident, and also get a bunch of discounts on foreign income, national income, rent income, capital gains among other things.

This strikes me as quite unfair, not only for giving people who are in a better financial state all these benefits, but also by putting more pressure on the already inflationed housing market. The Golden Visa programme also "helped", along with many other things. Some of these benefits were or are in the process of being reduced, but many still remain.

I understand this grows our economy, in principle, but mostly seeing negative consequences on the lives of my mostly non-tech friends and family is hard to ignore...

[zemvpferreira]

It is what it is. It would be unfair if we (I'm Portuguese as well) were suddenly taxed at a higher rate than foreigners, but the truth is we've lived with higher taxes and lower wages for a long time. Anything that brings rich/skilled people into the country will be a good thing in the mid-to-long run.

As far as the housing market goes I've always seen blaming foreigners as a very convenient excuse. Truth is our market follows the price of mortgages and those haven't been this cheap ever. Blame your fellow countrymen whose parents can loan them 50K to get a foot in the door instead.

[tiagod]

It is an excuse to blame the foreigners, agreed. These measures were not decided by them, I just think the government hasn't invested enough on affordable housing, and this helps.

About we not getting a tax raise... true, but we do have price indirect cost increases, mostly in housing. Right now most of my friends outside tech here in Lisbon are making ~800€ a month. That's around the cost for a tiny 1 bedroom within 45min of their workplace, a lot of them have to share a house with people they don't know.

Bringing skilled people is good, but will they be retained once time is up for the benefits? Is the government actually investing in high-tech or just picking up the scraps from foreign business?

[Arubis]

If it’s any consolation, Rebase.co, a service that advises folks on moving to Portugal to take advantage of the NHR program, has been discouraging non-EEU citizens from doing this for a couple of months, citing https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tiago-cassiano-neves_pta-inte...

[badpun]

> I understand this grows our economy, in principle, but mostly seeing negative consequences on the lives of my mostly non-tech friends and family is hard to ignore...

Perhaps the positive consequences are just harder to see? If these people grow the economy, then everyone benefits to a degree.

[tiagod]

They might benefit somewhat, but I'm not sure it's net positive.