Contabilista Certificado in Portugal: What the Tax Authority Expects

If your business must keep organized accounting, or you choose to, the tax authority requires a certified accountant, the contabilista certificado, to file your declaration of start of activity and to answer for the technical regularity of your accounts. If you are a freelancer in the simplified regime, the pages we read do not require one.

This guide is an overview of what the Ordem dos Contabilistas Certificados (OCC) and the Portal das Finanças say on the day we read them, 19 October 2026. It is not tax or legal advice, and the pages make no distinction by nationality, so it applies to Americans and Britons as to anyone else. The latest dated information it rests on is the tax authority’s brochure on starting activity, footed “março 2026” (the PDF file itself was last saved on 16 April 2026, the date this guide carries); the OCC statute page lists amendments up to Law 68/2023 of 7 December. The rules for freelancers are explained in more depth in our guide to the freelancing regime, and the wider picture of work routes is in working in Portugal as an American or a Briton.

Who is a certified accountant in Portugal?

A contabilista certificado is a member of the OCC. The statute says the professional title, its use and the acts the law reserves to certified accountants depend on registration with the Order. It adds that nationals of EU and EEA states whose qualifications are recognized, and people who obtained qualifications outside Portugal and obtain their equivalence, can also become certified accountants after registering.

The OCC page on the professional card (cédula profissional) says it is the document the Order issues to certify the suitability of the member’s training before civil society, the tax authority and other bodies. It is issued on request through the member’s OCC portal.

What does the law reserve to a certified accountant?

Article 10 of the statute, in the version published by the OCC, reserves one act exclusively to certified accountants: taking responsibility for the technical regularity of the accounts, including signing the financial statements and the tax declarations based on accounting information, of public or private entities that have, or must have, organized accounting under the official charts of accounts or the accounting standardization system.

The statute defines technical regularity as keeping the books under the applicable rules, based on the documents and information supplied by the management or the business owner, with a view to a true and fair picture of the company’s assets, and sending the accounting and tax information to the competent public bodies as the law defines.

Other acts the statute gives certified accountants competence for, without reserving them: consultancy in accounting and taxation, and representing the taxpayers whose books they are responsible for in the amicable phase of tax procedure and in tax proceedings, up to the limit above which a lawyer is compulsory. The statute does not mention United States or United Kingdom tax returns, so ask separately whether a given accountant also handles those. Our guides to US taxes for Americans abroad and UK taxes and HMRC for Britons in Portugal cover that side.

When does the tax authority require one?

The tax authority’s brochure on starting activity is short on this point: if you are obliged to keep organized accounting, or choose to, the declaration of start of activity must be presented by a certified accountant. The Portal das Finanças FAQ states the same split:

The change declaration follows the same logic: the accountant files it for a taxpayer with organized accounting, the taxpayer files it when there is none or when the law allows them to report that they no longer have it.

Does a freelancer need organized accounting?

The Code of personal income tax (CIRS), article 28, as the tax authority publishes it, says business and professional income is determined either under the simplified regime or from the accounts. The simplified regime covers taxpayers whose annual gross income of the category did not exceed 200,000 euros in the previous period, and they may opt to be taxed on their accounts instead. The option is made in the start-of-activity declaration, or by the end of March of the year in which they want the change, by a change declaration. It stays valid until a change declaration ends it.

The simplified regime stops applying only when the 200,000 euro limit is exceeded in two consecutive periods or, in a single year, by more than 25%. Taxation under organized accounting then starts from the following period. The brochure puts it the same way and adds that the tax authority frames the taxpayer each year from the previous year’s income, and that a person in organized accounting whose income falls to 200,000 euros or less is moved automatically to the simplified regime unless they file a change declaration by the end of March to stay.

One thing in the brochure follows from taking the option: the IES annual declaration then carries annex I for taxpayers with organized accounting. The brochure also says that taxpayers without organized accounting have to classify invoices on the Portal, and it exempts individuals without organized accounting from the IES. The brochure lists validating expenses on e-fatura and issuing invoices in the Portal’s system among the obligations in personal income tax. The brochure also exempts individuals under the accounting regime for micro-entities.

What does the accountant do for a company?

For a company the professional statute applies directly: its financial statements and tax declarations, to the extent they rest on accounting information, are signed by a certified accountant who answers for their regularity. The Empresa na Hora page, which we use in our guide to setting up a company, says that at the counter you indicate a certified accountant, either one from the list offered or by filing the start-of-activity declaration at any tax office up to 15 days after the company is created.

The tax authority’s page on the SAF-T (PT) file adds an expectation tied to the books: companies subject to corporate income tax that carry on a commercial, industrial or agricultural activity as their main activity and keep their accounts on computer must produce the standard audit file whenever the inspection services ask, and users of certified invoicing programs must be able to export it for invoicing. The page names Portaria 321-A/2007 as the base, as amended up to Portaria 302/2016. The page does not give the filing dates for accounting files, so we state none.

How is the accountant recorded with the tax authority?

Through the Portal das Finanças, in the cadastral data for certified accountants. The tax authority’s FAQ describes the steps:

1. The accountant, who needs a Portal password and an accountant profile, starts the nomination for your tax number (Serviços, Dados Cadastrais, Contabilista Certificado, Entregar início de nomeação).
2. If you have not started activity or have no organized accounting on record, the accountant is a “pre-accountant” who can immediately file the start or change declaration, and the nomination takes effect when that declaration is registered.
3. If you are changing accountant, you confirm the new one on the Portal and say whether to give full powers, which means authorizing the accountant to meet your declaration duties electronically.
4. A substitute accountant (suplente) can be nominated only if you already have an accountant on record.

Two points from the same FAQ matter for a foreign client. Being on the database is not enough for the accountant to file for you without your password: you must authorize it, through the Portal’s change-of-powers process or in a start/change declaration at a tax office. And an accountant’s notice of resignation takes effect only once you nominate a new certified accountant. You need your own Portal access to confirm any of this; see the Portuguese NIF guide for the number, and the Digital Mobile Key guide for one way of signing in.

How do you check that someone is a certified accountant?

The OCC site has a page, “Registo público de contabilistas”, with the public register of registered certified accountants, which the page says is organized under article 21(1) of the statute. A second list covers members whose registration, suspension or cancellation was granted in a period. Article 21 says the Order keeps the register permanently on its website and publishes quarterly the members whose registration was suspended or cancelled.

This matters because the statute says a member whose registration was suspended or cancelled at their own request can no longer use the title or exercise the activity, and that the Order tells the tax authority and the entities the accountant served. We did not use the register’s search tool, so we cannot describe how it works. Nor do we name any firm: this site does not recommend accountants.

What do you still have to do yourself?

Even with an accountant, the pages we read put these with you: confirming the nomination and the powers on the Portal, giving the accountant the documents and information on which the books are based (the statute defines technical regularity as resting on the documents and information supplied by the management or the owner), and the e-fatura and Portal invoicing obligations the brochure lists for personal income tax.

More guides in this series: corporate income tax (IRC) for a new company and VAT for freelancers and small businesses.

Official pages read for this guide, all on 19 October 2026: the OCC statute page and the statute (EOCC 2024 edition), the OCC pages on the public register and the professional card; the Portal das Finanças brochure on starting activity (March 2026), the FAQ on activity declarations, the FAQ on managing certified accountants, article 28 of the personal income tax code and the page on SAF-T (PT); and the Empresa na Hora page of the Ministry of Justice.