Tiago has a YouTube channel with 40,000 subscribers and gets a payment from Google every month. It looks simple: the money comes from abroad - so, he thinks, there’s no VAT and nothing to declare here. Almost everything in that sentence is wrong, and it’s exactly where most creators trip up.
”It’s foreign income”? It isn’t
What matters to the tax office isn’t where the person paying you sits - it’s where you do the work. Tiago records, edits and publishes in Portugal, so the income is obtained in Portuguese territory (art. 18.º of the CIRS): it goes into your IRS as Category B income (the self-employed one), on Anexo B - not Anexo J.
Anexo J is for income earned abroad (work performed abroad). Having Google, Twitch or Patreon as the payer doesn’t change that: if you produce here, you declare here, on Anexo B. Plenty of guides get this wrong.
Your activity code changes the tax
There’s no “influencer” code. In practice you use code 1519 - “other service providers” (the catch-all in the list of professions) or, if you’re mainly an artist/performer, an artist code from the table.
It’s not a detail: it sets the coefficient - the slice of what you invoice that counts for tax (the State assumes the rest are your expenses).
For Tiago, with €20,000 from Google over the year, that’s:
Choose deliberately at the start. The AT puts 1519 at 0.35, but there’s some divergence for performative activity - if you’re unsure about your case, check before you open.
The VAT: your invoice to Google carries no VAT…
When you invoice Google (Ireland) or Twitch, you’re supplying a service to a business outside Portugal. The operation is not located here (art. 6.º of the CIVA), so the invoice goes out without Portuguese VAT - the correct reason is reverse charge (code M40), not an exemption. Detail: for EU platforms like Google (Ireland), you must be registered in VIES and file the recapitulative statement for those services (in the standard regime) - and, if you’re exempt under art. 53.º, you’ve been excused from it since 1 July 2025; non-EU platforms don’t go on that statement.
Patreon and other membership/support platforms are a case apart - don’t just apply the rule above. Check the transaction model first: sometimes the people paying you are the individual patrons, not the platform, and that changes who your customer is, where the VAT is due and the code on the invoice. See how Patreon bills your case before you pick the recipient and the VAT treatment.
…but watch what you buy abroad
Here’s the trap almost no one sees. When you buy services from foreign suppliers - editing software, ad credits, stock libraries invoiced without VAT - you become the one who has to account for the VAT in Portugal (the same reverse charge, the other way round): you file a periodic VAT return and pay the 23% here. And if you’re exempt under art. 53.º, you don’t deduct that VAT - it stays a cost of yours.
In other words: “VAT-exempt” does not mean “zero VAT paperwork”. Google pays you without VAT, but the software you subscribe to abroad can force a return.
Social Security: 21.4% - and Google isn’t a “contracting entity”
You pay 21.4% on 70% of your service income. Each month’s base is 1/3 of what you declare in the quarterly declaration.
And don’t count on the platforms to help: a contracting entity (a client you depend on heavily, which then owes its own separate contribution to Social Security - one that doesn’t reduce yours) is generally one with activity in Portugal. So Google and Twitch generally don’t enter that calculation - their income counts towards your base, but the 21.4% is all yours.
Careful: what about “authorial rights”? There is an IRS benefit that excludes 50% of that income from aggregation, with the excluded amount capped at €10,000 (art. 58.º of the EBF) - but it expressly excludes advertising works - so sponsored content and most ad revenue don’t get the benefit. Don’t count on it for your ordinary creator income.
✅ In summary
-
You’re paid from abroad but you declare in Portugal - you produce here, so it’s Category B on Anexo B, not Anexo J. And the code you pick (1519 at 0.35 vs an artist code at 0.75) changes the base you pay tax on.
-
You invoice Google/Twitch without Portuguese VAT (operation not located here, reason M40; on membership platforms like Patreon, check who the customer is) - but if you buy services abroad you may have to self-assess VAT here, even when exempt under art. 53.º (and without being able to deduct it).
-
With FIZ you invoice the platforms with the right reason, and the VAT and Social Security are worked out and submitted for you - including the self-assessment on what you buy abroad, which is where creators trip up most. Your IRS is prepared for you to upload on the Portal. See the plans.
