What changed after Brexit
Before Brexit, UK→Portugal household moves did not need formal customs clearance — both countries were inside the EU customs union and goods moved freely. After Brexit, the UK became a third country and consignments crossing into Portugal need a formal customs declaration. The good news is that the framework that lets your personal effects cross duty-free still exists — it is just procedural now where it used to be invisible.
The framework is transfer-of-residence (ToR) relief: provided you are moving your principal residence from the UK to Portugal, and the goods you are bringing are used personal effects you have owned for at least six months, they qualify for relief from import VAT and customs duty.
The UK-side ToR1 declaration
ToR1 is the HMRC declaration that documents your transfer of residence and supports the duty-free release of your goods. It is the UK-side paperwork — the equivalent customs filing on the Portuguese side is the AT inventory submission.
We file the ToR1 on your behalf as part of the move package. You sign it and provide the supporting evidence we ask for. If you have lived overseas in a previous chapter and brought goods to the UK under ToR before, mention that during the survey — it can affect how the current ToR1 is framed.
The Portuguese AT inventory
AT (Autoridade Tributária) is the Portuguese tax and customs authority. The submission they expect is a bilingual (Portuguese and English) line-by-line inventory of every item in the consignment, with a current second-hand valuation in euros against each item. Used personal effects do not need original purchase receipts; new items (anything bought close to the move) need fuller documentation.
We prepare the inventory from the surveyor's walk-through. You review and sign it before submission. The level of detail matters: a single "boxes of books" line will draw a query; "box of approximately 30 paperback books, used, ~€40" will not. We err on the side of more specific.
- Furniture itemised with brief description, condition, and second-hand value.
- Electrical goods individually listed with make and model.
- Books, kitchenware, and similar grouped by box with category and value.
- Art and high-value items photographed and listed with separate valuation.
- Vehicles and watercraft on their own separate paperwork — not in the household inventory.
NIF — the Portuguese tax number
NIF (Número de Identificação Fiscal) is the Portuguese tax-identification number, and every adult resident or non-resident interacting with Portuguese officialdom needs one. The AT inventory references your NIF, so you need it before the customs filing.
Most UK movers obtain a NIF before arrival, through a Portuguese fiscal representative. The fiscal representative is also typically the person who helps open your Portuguese bank account and handles ongoing tax-side correspondence with AT once you are resident. We do not provide the NIF service ourselves; we can refer you to firms that specialise in it.
Residency evidence at clearance
The ToR relief depends on you actually transferring your residence. AT looks for evidence: your residency visa (D7, D8, golden visa, family-reunification, or other pathway), a rental or purchase contract showing a Portuguese property as your principal residence, and ideally proof you are leaving the UK as your primary residence (council-tax-end, utility-disconnect, employer-letter).
Not every move has every document at clearance time. Talk to us early about what you have — there is usually a sensible way to position the residency evidence, and AT is generally pragmatic where the move is plainly genuine.
Aveiro clearance in practice
The bulk of UK→Portugal road consignments clear at the AT facility in the Aveiro region of central Portugal. Sea groupage routed through the port of Leixões (north of Porto) typically clears at the port-of-arrival facility; sea groupage through Sines clears at Sines and forwards onwards by road.
We submit the paperwork in advance of the consignment's arrival so the release window is as tight as possible. Routine clearances complete within a working window we hold contingency for; we do not promise a day-count because the AT side is not under our control.
What happens if AT raises a query
The most common queries are about valuation (AT asks for a specific item to be re-priced or for supporting documentation) or about residency proof (a specific document AT wants to see). We respond directly to AT on your behalf — you do not need to be in Portugal to handle this and you do not need to learn Portuguese to manage it.
A query slows the clearance window but does not usually result in goods being refused. Refusals are rare in our experience and almost always involve either an inventory misdescription (something declared as personal effects but plainly commercial) or a residency claim that the evidence does not support. We catch most of these at survey stage before they ever reach AT.