On the 15th of July, the Portuguese Government announced Simplex 20-21, a program where 158 points that aim to improve the public administration are listed. This program aims to “bring a profound change into the culture and the Portuguese Public Administration model” and simplify the interactions between the public administration and private individuals through the automation and dematerialization of processes.
The 158 points of the Simplex 20-21 Program cover areas as different as health, education, tax, labor, business, etc. As so, in this article Belzuz Abogados Real Estate Department will only briefly focus on the points that most likely will have a direct impact on the two markets that in recent years have played a key role in the Portuguese economy: Real Estate Market and Tourism Market.
REAL ESTATE & URBANISM
Complete dematerialization of the “House Ready” ("Casa Pronta") process
The “House Ready” ("Casa Pronta") service allows to immediately carry out all the necessary formalities for the purchase and sale, donation, transfer in lieu of payment of urban properties and non-urban properties, in a single point of contact. The Portuguese Government now intends to proceed with the complete dematerialization of this process by implementing the issuance of an online certificate.
The automatic filling of the tax declaration - Model 11
SIMPLEX program also states that the Tax Authorities and the Institute of Registries and Notaries (Instituto dos Registos e Notariado) will share information in order to automatically fill in the tax declaration Model 11- a tax declaration intended to register acts and contracts subjected to income and property taxes that must be completed and delivered by notaries and professionals who are able to authenticate private documents when they certify acts or contracts that must be delivered to the land registry - thus reducing the bureaucracies related to the transfer of real estate.
Technical inspection forms in real estate and construction
By making technical inspection forms more accessible, all interested parties will be allowed to have prior knowledge of the elements that will be inspected, thus creating conditions for greater equity and transparency in the inspection and licensing process. It is also intended to achieve the dematerialization of reports when there are no illicit acts to report. As to the cases where the building does not comply, the form is filled out and the report is attached, and sent to the Legal Department of Institute of Public Markets, Real Estate and Construction (Instituto dos Mercados Públicos, do Imobiliário e da Construção – IMPIC).
Registration via videoconference
The professionals who perform registries will be able to use videoconference in order to register certain types of acts.
Online Certificate of Public Works Contractor
In the future it will be possible to apply for the Certificate of Public Works Contractor by using the IMPIC website.
Land Registry
The “Building’s Single Desk” (BUP - Balcão Único do Prédio) is an online service that aims to simplify and speed up the identification of the owners of non-urban properties and the georeferenced location of those properties. It is expected that, in the future, the information resulting from the georeferenced graphic representation of the rustic building that will be validated by all adjoining owners will assume the nature of a land registry for all legal purposes, as was already foreseen in 2017.
It is also intended to make available the geographical information of the buildings under the regime of experimental land registration and geometric registration of the rustic property through an electronic platform.
Cartography approval
The submission, management and consultation of mapping approval processes will now be carried out online.
TOURISM & IMMIGRATION
MYTURISM from Portugal
A single access will be created for any online service that Turismo de Portugal (Tourism of Portugal Public Institute) makes available to its users, allowing the status of the various user processes to be consulted at the institute and the online operations inherent to these processes to be carried out.
Travel ID (Travel BI) 4.0
TravelID (or TravelBI), the knowledge management platform of Turismo de Portugal (Tourism of Portugal Public Institute), which provides statistical information and other sources of knowledge to those who operate in this tourism market, will be improved with the introduction of new data usage and functionalities, namely through business intelligence and geodata tools and, also providing for the co-creation and dissemination of knowledge, in partnership with universities, research centers and regional observatories for sustainable tourism.
Entry Declarations & Online Residence Permit Renewal Application
Submission of the entry declaration into the country on an online website will be allowed in the future. Such declaration must be subjected to subsequent validation and the user must present himself to the Municipalities or SEF once in national territory. The submission on the SEF website of the application for renewal of the Residence Permit, provided that that does not require the collection of biometric data, will be done online as well.
The possibility of public services to use a relevant database will also be created - checking compliance regarding tax obligations and with the social security of the applicants - in order to expedite the process.
E-VISA website
The creation of an E-Visa website will allow users to request the scheduling of visa applications through an electronic application, enabling the monitoring and verification of the status of the online process by those users.
Traveler Registration
Improvement of the current Traveler Registration system regarding the usage of the mobile application and the online form.
The Real Estate Law team of Belzuz Abogados S.L.P. – Limited Professional Company is available to provide any additional information on the subjects presented in this article and will continue to monitor the various laws and regulations that will be implemented.
Real Estate Law department | Portugal
Belzuz Abogados SLP
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