The business register in Portugal is the Registo Comercial (Commercial Register), kept by the conservatórias do registo comercial (commercial registry offices) under the Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado — IRN (Institute of Registries and Notaries) within the Ministry of Justice. Its distinctive instrument is the certidão permanente (permanent certificate): instead of a paper document, the subscriber receives an access code that gives permanently up-to-date online access to the company’s record, and consultation with that code is free. Corporate acts are published on a dedicated free government site rather than in the official gazette.

The company registry in Portugal

The register is governed by the Código do Registo Comercial (Commercial Register Code) and, for the companies themselves, by the Código das Sociedades Comerciais (Commercial Companies Code). Its purpose, in the words of the justice services portal, is to give publicity to the legal situation of companies, other collective entities and individual traders. Acts are registered either por transcrição (by transcription), as with changes to corporate bodies, transformations, mergers and divisions, or por depósito (by deposit), as with quota transfers and pledges of quotas.

Two incorporation routes stand out. Empresa na Hora (Company on the Spot) allows same-day incorporation at any participating counter, regardless of where the future registered office will be, for the single-member and ordinary private limited company and the public limited company; the name is taken from a pre-approved pool of company names or from a name admissibility certificate, and the applicant leaves with the articles of association, the access code to the permanent certificate, the access code to the company card and the corporate identification number. Empresa Online is the fully online equivalent, requiring a Portuguese digital identity or a professional certificate held by a lawyer, notary or solicitor. A parallel Sucursal na Hora service exists for branches.

Names, identifiers and publications

The Registo Nacional de Pessoas Colectivas — RNPC (National Registry of Legal Persons) organises the central file of legal persons, decides the admissibility of company names and denominations and attributes the NIPC (corporate identification number), which also serves as the entity’s tax number. Mandatory publication of corporate acts takes place on the Ministry of Justice publications site, which since 2006 has replaced the third series of the official gazette for companies and was later extended to associations, foundations and mutual and social solidarity institutions; access is public and free.

Sole traders are within the register’s scope: it publicises the legal situation of individual traders, and the estabelecimento individual de responsabilidade limitada (individual establishment of limited liability) is expressly a registrable form.

Legal forms that can be registered in Portugal

  • Sociedade por quotas — Lda. (Private limited company) — at least two partners, liability limited to the share capital. The minimum value of each quota is EUR 1, so capital is effectively free. The dominant Portuguese form.
  • Sociedade unipessoal por quotas (Single-member private limited company) — one holder, individual or corporate, with liability limited to the capital.
  • Sociedade anónima — S.A. (Public limited company) — at least five shareholders, or one where a legal person holds all the shares; liability limited to the shares subscribed; minimum capital EUR 50,000 with a minimum share value of one cent.
  • Sociedade em nome colectivo (General partnership) — at least two partners with unlimited, subsidiary and joint liability; no minimum capital.
  • Sociedade em comandita simples and sociedade em comandita por acções (Limited partnership and partnership limited by shares) — mixed liability, with comanditários contributing capital under limited liability and comanditados managing under unlimited liability.
  • Cooperativa (Cooperative) — an autonomous legal person with variable capital and membership and a non-profit purpose, registrable in the commercial register.
  • Agrupamento complementar de empresas — ACE (Complementary grouping of enterprises) — a joint vehicle formed to improve the results of its members’ activity.
  • Agrupamento europeu de interesse económico — AEIE (European Economic Interest Grouping) — the cross-border cooperation vehicle, whose members are generally jointly and severally liable.
  • Sociedade europeia — SE (European Company) — limited liability with capital in shares; it is excluded from the same-day incorporation service.
  • Sucursal ou representação permanente de sociedade estrangeira (Branch or permanent representation of a foreign company) — no separate legal personality; registration is required where the foreign company intends to operate in Portugal for more than a year, and must be filed within two months of the parent’s decision.
  • Empresário em nome individual — ENI (Sole trader) — no minimum capital and unlimited liability over personal assets.
  • Estabelecimento individual de responsabilidade limitada — EIRL (Individual establishment of limited liability) — a ring-fenced business estate in which only the assets allocated to the establishment answer for its debts, unless the separation is breached.
  • Sociedade gestora de participações sociais — SGPS (Holding company) — takes the form of a private or public limited company, with the sole corporate object of managing shareholdings in other companies.

Information available from the Portuguese business register

Three channels carry public information. The certidão permanente may be subscribed by anyone for a chosen period; the resulting access code can be shared freely, and consultation with the code is free. Depending on the type requested, it shows the commercial registration entries and pending applications, the documents supporting the registrations, other than accounting documents, and the current articles of association. The publications site offers a free search of published corporate acts by corporate identification number, name, district or municipality, date range and publication type. And annual accounts are open: the Informação Empresarial Simplificada — IES (Simplified Corporate Information) filing submitted through the tax portal simultaneously performs the deposit of accounts in the commercial register, and the justice services portal states plainly that any person or public or private entity may consult a company’s annual accounts.

What is restricted

The Registo Central do Beneficiário Efetivo — RCBE (Central Register of Beneficial Owners), created by Lei n.º 89/2017, has been narrowed. Decreto-Lei n.º 115/2025, de 27 de outubro amended the RCBE regime to transpose the EU anti-money-laundering directive of 2024, expressly in response to the Court of Justice judgment in joined cases C-37/20 and C-601/20. The preamble records that the previous Portuguese rule allowed access to anyone who authenticated, without needing to invoke a legitimate interest, and that this had to change: information is now made available to those who demonstrate a legitimate interest, every access must be logged for audit for five years including the legitimate interest invoked, and the mode of access and user identification are to be set by ministerial order. The data set concerned is in any case limited — on the entity its identification, legal nature, seat, activity code and institutional e-mail, and on the beneficial owners their name, month and year of birth, nationality, country of residence and the economic interest held. Full addresses, dates of birth and identity document numbers are never public. A beneficial owner may additionally request total or partial restriction of access on statutory risk grounds.

Two practical cautions follow. First, the implementing order foreseen by the 2025 decree could not be located as published, and the official RCBE guidance still describes access in the pre-amendment terms, so the practical position should be checked before relying on it. Second, the government portals have been migrating — the former business portal now redirects to the central government portal and the justice service pages to a dedicated registry platform — so older links should be treated as unstable.

Documents that can be obtained from the register

  • Certidão permanente do registo comercial (Permanent commercial register certificate) — the full registration history and current status, pending applications and, depending on the type ordered, the filed documents and current articles of association. The standard evidence of legal existence, representation and encumbrances in Portugal.
  • Código de acesso à certidão permanente (Access code to the permanent certificate) — issued on subscription and shareable, so that banks, counterparties and authorities consult the live record instead of a paper certificate.
  • Certidão de registo comercial em papel (Paper commercial register certificate) — requested at a registry office on the prescribed form, for situations abroad that require a physical original.
  • Pacto social ou estatutos (Articles of association) — included in the permanent certificate and delivered at incorporation through the same-day and online services.
  • Publicações de actos societários (Publications of corporate acts) — the free, searchable record of published acts that constitutes statutory publicity towards third parties.
  • Informação Empresarial Simplificada (Simplified Corporate Information) — the annual accounts filing, comprising the balance sheet, income statement and annexes with tax and statistical data, consultable by anyone and used for credit, tender and due diligence checks.
  • Certidão do RCBE (Beneficial ownership certificate) — the access code to the validated beneficial ownership declaration, used as anti-money-laundering evidence by obliged entities.
  • Certificado de admissibilidade de firma ou denominação (Company name admissibility certificate) — issued by the national registry of legal persons with the intended name, seat, legal nature and activities, valid for three months and a precondition for incorporation or a change of name unless a pre-approved name is used.
  • Cartão da empresa ou de pessoa colectiva (Company or legal person card) — carrying the corporate identification number, activity code and identifying data.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the business register in Portugal called?

The Registo Comercial (Commercial Register), kept by the commercial registry offices under the Institute of Registries and Notaries within the Ministry of Justice.

What is a certidão permanente?

A subscription to a company’s live register record. The subscriber receives an access code that can be shared, and anyone holding the code consults the permanently updated certificate online free of charge.

Are Portuguese company accounts public?

Yes. The Simplified Corporate Information filing performs the deposit of accounts in the commercial register, and any person or entity may consult a company’s annual accounts.

Where are Portuguese corporate acts published?

On the Ministry of Justice publications site, which replaced the third series of the official gazette for companies and offers free public searching.

Can I look up the beneficial owner of a Portuguese company?

Only on demonstrating a legitimate interest. The 2025 decree-law amended the beneficial ownership register in response to the Court of Justice judgment, requiring legitimate interest and logging every access, and even then only a limited data set is disclosed.

What is the minimum capital of a Portuguese company?

For a private limited company the minimum value of each quota is EUR 1, so capital is effectively free; a public limited company requires EUR 50,000.

Sources

Keywords

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