How the Paid NIF Industry Got This Messed Up

If you’re moving to Portugal, you’ve met the beast. It’s a nine-digit number called a NIF, and it’s your key to everything: opening a bank account, renting an apartment, even getting a phone plan. The Portuguese government issues this number for free, or for about €10.

So why are online companies charging you €70, €150, or even more? Sometimes even on a anual basis without a possability to cancel until you actually move to Portugal.

Welcome to the NIF industry, a multi-million euro market built on a foundation of government inefficiency and corporate greed. It’s a system that has become profoundly messed up. It thrives by selling you a solution to a problem that shouldn't exist and locks you into subscriptions you don’t legally need.

We’re here to pull back the curtain and show you how the whole thing works. Because we think monetizing confusion is wrong.

The Government Created the Problem

The paid NIF industry exists for one simple reason: getting a NIF directly from the government is a nightmare.

The "free" path involves going in person to a tax office (Finanças). In theory, you show your passport and proof of address, and you walk out with a NIF. In reality, it’s a bureaucratic gauntlet designed to break your spirit.

• The Endless Queues: Think hours of waiting, often starting before the sun comes up, just to get a ticket. It's an experience universally described as inefficient and frustrating.
• The Appointment Catch-22: Many offices now require an appointment. But here’s the kicker: the government's own online portal to book an appointment often requires you to already have a NIF and password. You can’t get the thing you need because you don’t have the thing you need. It’s a perfect bureaucratic loop of insanity.
• The Language Barrier: Don't speak Portuguese? Good luck. You’re often on your own, trying to navigate complex legal requirements in a language you don't understand.

This friction isn't just an inconvenience; it’s the raw material for the paid NIF industry. They aren’t selling you a NIF. They’re selling you the avoidance of this state-sanctioned misery.

The Industry’s Dirty Little Secret: The Fiscal Representative

Here’s where the mess gets really profitable for them. The cornerstone of the paid NIF service is the representante fiscal, or fiscal representative (FR).

For years, any non-EU resident needed to appoint a person or company in Portugal to receive their tax mail. This was a legal requirement, and it became the perfect justification for service providers to act on your behalf and charge a hefty fee.

But here’s what most of them won’t tell you in big, bold letters on their homepage:

A 2022 law change made the fiscal representative OPTIONAL for most new applicants.

Under Decree-Law 44/2022, if you subscribe to digital notifications from the tax authority, you are exempt from needing a fiscal representative unless you actually own property, have an employment contract, or own a car in Portugal.

For the thousands of people getting a NIF just to open a bank account for their D7 or Digital Nomad visa, the mandatory fiscal representative is no longer mandatory.

Yet, the industry's business model is still built around it. They sell you the NIF as a package deal, bundling it with a "free" year of fiscal representation that automatically converts into a recurring annual subscription of €100 to €500.

They are knowingly locking you into an expensive subscription for a service the law says you probably don't need.

What Are You Actually Paying €150 For?

When you pay a premium price for a "hassle-free" NIF, you're not just paying for convenience. You're paying for a bundle designed to maximize profit by exploiting your confusion.

1. The NIF Service (€??): An employee fills out a form and submits it on the government portal. This is the core task.
2. The Fiscal Rep Subscription (€100-€500/year): The recurring fee they hope you don't notice or find too difficult to cancel. This is their cash cow.
3. A Power of Attorney Template (Free PDF): They send you a document that you have to print, sign, and often get notarized at your own expense (another €50-€150).

Their marketing is a masterclass in selling fear. They flash warnings of “€7,500 fines” and “bureaucratic nightmares” to make their fee seem like a reasonable price for “peace of mind.”

It’s not peace of mind. It’s a business model that preys on your lack of information.

Why We're Blowing This Up for €29.99

We looked at this mess and decided it was fundamentally broken. Access to a country’s basic systems shouldn’t be a luxury good built on fear and confusion.

So we built Coepi differently.

Our approach is simple: transparency and honesty.

1. We Unbundled the Product. You just need a NIF? Great. That’s a simple administrative task. We’ll do it for €29.99. That’s it. No bundles, no forced subscriptions.
2. We Tell You the Truth. We will never sell you a fiscal representative service you don't legally need. We believe in educating you first so you can make the right choice, not trapping you in a subscription.
3. No Cancellation Friction. If you do need a fiscal representative and use our future service for it, we'll make it easy to cancel online with one click. Because holding customers hostage is a bad business.

The NIF industry got this messed up by creating layers of complexity and monetizing them. We’re fixing it by stripping them all away.

You don’t have to get scammed to start your life in Portugal. You just need an honest service.

Ready for a NIF without the nonsense? Get yours for €29.99 →