Hi,
My name is Mike and 12 years ago we bought a plot of land in Portugal and built a holiday home on it. As part of the buying process our then lawyer told us we needed to have NIfs which we acquired via our lawyer.
We don't rent our holiday home out and never have but we are being told we have to have a fiscal representative or face being fined.
We don't earn any money in Portugal but we do pay council tax even though we only visit two or three times a year for 3 weeks at a time. The rest of the time the place is empty.
We don't have any friends in Portugal whom we could ask to represent us.
We can't ask the lawyer we had because he did something that meant we had to register a complaint against him, this was several years ago, but now none of the local lawyers will act for us.
I have found one lawyer who is based in Lisbon who will represent us be he wants to charge us 800 euros a year.
Do I need a NIF and thus fiscal representation if I/we don't earn any money in Portugal?
Thanks in advance.