Portugal receives 3.6 million overseas tax records as global data-sharing expands

Portugal’s tax authority received a record 3.6 million financial records from 103 countries last year as the international crackdown on offshore tax evasion and hidden foreign income continued to gather pace.

Figures published in the government’s 2025 Report on Combating Tax and Customs Fraud and Evasion show that the Tax and Customs Authority (AT) is exchanging information with more jurisdictions than ever before – giving investigators unprecedented visibility over the overseas income and financial assets of Portuguese taxpayers.

The report, presented to parliament by Secretary of State for Tax Affairs Cláudia Reis Duarte, shows Portugal received 3,628,864 records through automatic international tax information exchanges in 2025 – up from exchanges with 96 jurisdictions in 2022 and 101 in 2024.

The data primarily concerns bank accounts, financial assets and income linked to Portuguese individuals, companies and other legal entities with interests abroad.

Ten countries accounted for the overwhelming majority of the information received—Germany, Brazil, Canada, Spain, France, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Switzerland—which together generated 86% of all records sent to Portugal.

The information flows in both directions.

During 2025, Portugal automatically supplied 4,411,729 financial records to tax authorities in 92 jurisdictions, compared with 81 countries three years earlier. Around 87% of those records were also exchanged with the same ten countries.

The growing volume of cross-border data reflects the expansion of international tax transparency rules introduced by the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The automatic exchanges cover a wide range of financial information, including salaries, pensions, bank accounts, investments, life insurance policies, property holdings and the profits and taxes of large multinational companies.

Portuguese tax authorities use the data to identify discrepancies in tax declarations, assess audit risks and investigate cases where taxpayers attempt to shift profits, hide assets or reduce their tax liabilities through overseas structures.

The report also shows that cooperation extends beyond automatic exchanges.

Last year, Portugal received 330 responses to specific requests for taxpayer information from foreign authorities and provided 250 responses to similar requests from other countries. It also received 50 pieces of information spontaneously from overseas tax administrations and voluntarily shared 66 with international counterparts.

Germany, Belgium, Spain, the United States, France, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Switzerland accounted for the vast majority of these targeted exchanges.

The figures underline how difficult it has become for taxpayers to keep foreign income or assets hidden, with tax authorities across more than 100 jurisdictions now routinely sharing financial information under international transparency agreements.

Source material: LUSA