Keeping US or UK Bank Accounts in Portugal: Americans, Britons

The pages we read do not give you a right to keep a US or UK bank account once you live in Portugal: that stays between you and the bank. What they do set is what you must report. A Portuguese tax resident lists accounts held outside Portugal on the annual return, and an American may also have U.S. filings on the Portuguese account.

This guide sits under the guide to opening a bank account in Portugal, which covers the Portuguese side. Here the question is the other direction: what happens to the accounts you already have at home, who is told about them and what you file. It is not legal or tax advice, and it says what each page says on the day we read it.

What the pages say, and when

We read the pages on 18 October 2026. The Portuguese tax authority (Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira, AT) pages on income earned abroad carry no date of their own. The IRS pages we rely on show “Page Last Reviewed or Updated” dates of 30 July 2026 for the FBAR page, 18 June 2026 for the FATCA page for individuals and 20 September 2026 for the Form 8938 page. That last one is the latest dated information behind this guide, so 20 September 2026 is the date of the guide’s information. The GOV.UK guides on UK tax carry no date on the page; the FCDO page Living in Portugal shows 10 July 2026, and the HMRC page on Automatic Exchange of Information shows 31 December 2020, when it was updated because the Brexit transition period ended.

Can I keep my US or UK bank account after I move to Portugal?

The official pages we read do not answer this. The IRS, FinCEN, HMRC and AT pages we read cover reporting. None of them says that a bank outside Portugal must keep your account open, or that it may close it, when you move. Whether your bank will keep the account, restrict it or ask you to close it depends on that bank, so ask it before you go and keep its answer in writing.

What the pages do settle is the reporting side, and that is the same whether or not the bank keeps the account:

• Portugal treats an account at an institution outside Portugal as a foreign account to be listed, as described below.
• The IRS FBAR page covers accounts located outside the United States: a Portuguese account is one, and an account at a U.S. bank in the U.S. is not.
• The UK taxes UK income of non-residents, and UK banks report accounts of non-UK residents to HMRC.

When does Portugal start asking about my foreign accounts?

When you become a tax resident of Portugal. The AT lists the criteria for residence in Portuguese territory. Among them are staying more than 183 days, consecutive or not, in any 12-month period that starts or ends in the year, or having at any day of that period a home in conditions that suggest an intention to keep and occupy it as a habitual residence. Our guide to the NIF covers how to get the Portuguese tax number.

Once you are resident, the AT says:

• You declare in Portugal all income, from Portugal and from abroad, on the Modelo 3 IRS return, and foreign income goes in Anexo J.
• Anexo J, Quadro 11 is where you identify all deposit or securities accounts opened at a financial institution not resident in Portuguese territory, or at a branch outside Portugal of a resident one, “ainda que as mesmas não tenham gerado qualquer rendimento” (even if they produced no income).
• The duty applies if you are the holder or beneficiary, or are authorized to operate the account. The AT cites article 63-A, numbers 8 and 9 of the General Tax Law.
• You identify each account by its IBAN and BIC, or by the account number if you cannot obtain those.
• The AT says this declaration does not change the final tax: it only identifies the accounts.
• For joint accounts, each holder declares the income in proportion to their share. The annex is individual, so a married or de facto couple filing jointly fills in two annexes for an account they share.
• The filing period runs from 1 April to 30 June of the year after the income.

The AT also says tax authorities in many countries send it information on the income earned there by people who are tax resident in Portugal, and that it sends the same kind of information to the other countries. The pages do not say what the AT receives about accounts; they say you must list them.

Which accounts does an American report, and where?

The Portuguese rule above applies to you as to anyone who is resident in Portugal: a U.S. bank account is an account at an institution outside Portugal. On the U.S. side, the picture reverses, as this table shows from the IRS and FinCEN pages. This guide does not repeat the FBAR in depth; see U.S. taxes for Americans living in Portugal for the filings.

The IRS says an FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is required of a U.S. person with a financial interest in, or signature authority over, foreign financial accounts if their total value exceeded 10,000 dollars at any time in the calendar year. It is filed electronically through FinCEN’s BSA E-Filing System, not with your tax return, and is due April 15 with an automatic extension to October 15. FinCEN says an individual can file without registering for a BSA E-Filing account.

Form 8938 is separate. The IRS says it is filed with your tax return, that you do not file it if you do not have to file a return, and that higher thresholds apply to a taxpayer living abroad, meaning a bona fide resident of a foreign country for an uninterrupted period that includes the entire tax year, or a person physically present in a foreign country at least 330 days in 12 consecutive months ending in the tax year. For such a taxpayer the filing thresholds are 200,000 dollars on the last day of the year or 300,000 at any time (unmarried or filing separately), or 400,000 and 600,000 on a joint return. Otherwise the U.S. thresholds apply, which matters in the year of the move: more than 50,000 dollars on the last day of the year or more than 75,000 at any time, or 100,000 and 150,000 on a joint return. The IRS adds that the FBAR and Form 8938 are separate requirements and that a person may have to file both.

An American who keeps a U.S. account and opens a Portuguese one therefore has two sets of paper: the Portuguese return names the U.S. account, and the U.S. filings may name the Portuguese one. The thresholds depend on your facts, so read the IRS pages or ask a U.S. tax professional.

What does a Briton report, and to whom?

Two countries look at a UK account, and they do not cancel each other.

In Portugal. The UK account is an account outside Portugal, so you list it in Anexo J, Quadro 11 as above. The interest it pays is income from capital, which the AT places in Quadro 8 of the same annex, gross of any tax paid abroad. The AT says tax paid in the source country is taken into account as a credit against double taxation, so you are not taxed twice on the same income.

In the UK. GOV.UK says you usually have to pay tax on your UK income even if you are not a UK resident, and lists pension, rental income, savings interest and wages as examples. It says you usually have to send a Self Assessment tax return if you live abroad and have taxable savings interest from UK banks or building societies, and that you do not need to report income to HMRC if you have already claimed tax relief under a double taxation agreement. GOV.UK also says Income Tax is no longer automatically taken from interest on savings and investments. Non-residents cannot use HMRC’s online services to report; they send a paper return with form SA109, use software that supports SA109, or use a tax professional, and the paper deadline is 31 October. The FCDO page on living in Portugal says the UK has a double taxation agreement with Portugal so that you do not pay tax on the same income in both countries.

What the UK bank does. HMRC says UK banks and building societies provide information on non-UK residents with financial accounts and investments in the UK to HMRC, which shares it with the relevant countries. HMRC calls this Automatic Exchange of Information and says it covers the FATCA agreement with the U.S. and the OECD Common Reporting Standard.

A Briton who is also a U.S. citizen reads the American section as well. The post-Brexit residence situation is in our guide for British citizens.

Does my UK State Pension go into a Portuguese account?

It can. GOV.UK says the State Pension can be paid into a bank in the country you live in, or a bank or building society in the UK, in an account in your name, a joint account or, with permission, someone else’s. For an overseas account you give the IBAN and a BIC, or a bank or brand code and account number. The amount is usually converted into local currency at the exchange rate at the time of conversion, with a conversion charge of 0.39% before payment. You can be paid every 4 or 13 weeks. If you live part of the year abroad, you must choose one country for payment.

For the American equivalent, the Social Security Administration pages did not load for us, so this guide says nothing about paying U.S. Social Security into a Portuguese account.

What should I do before and after the move?

More guides on this site: FBAR and FATCA reporting for Americans in Portugal; direct deposit of Social Security abroad; UK ISAs and Premium Bonds.

Pages read for this guide

Related guides: sending money between Portugal and the US or UK, cards, MB Way and everyday payments.

On 18 October 2026: the AT pages Rendimentos obtidos no Estrangeiro and the frequently asked questions on foreign income; the IRS pages on the FBAR, on FATCA information for individuals and on who must file Form 8938; the FinCEN page Report Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts; the GOV.UK guide Tax on your UK income if you live abroad; the HMRC guidance Automatic Exchange of Information: introduction; the GOV.UK guides Tell HMRC about a change to your personal details and State Pension if you retire abroad; and the FCDO guidance Living in Portugal.