Portugal Declaration of Beginning of Business/Professional Activity for Natural Persons (Declaração de Início de Atividade)

This file is the source-review record for this document version, per the manual-source-review-v1 practice.

Current claim

• status: draft
• verification.method: manual-source-review-v1
• verification.lastVerifiedAt: 2026-07-10
• maturity.level: structural-reference

Why this candidate, this cycle

This is the recurring "GovSchema Standard Research" cycle (GOV-2143). Its own phased brief names the same six generic verticals (DMV, Business Formation, Visa, Passport, Taxes, National ID & Civic Documents) every prior cycle of this recurring issue has already named, plus four specific National ID & Civic Documents candidates (DE Steuer-ID, SG NRIC loss/damage + re-registration, NZ RealMe, "remaining voter registration"). All four were re-checked first and re-confirmed already resolved: de/finanzamt/tax-identification-number, sg/ica/identity-card-replacement + sg/ica/identity-card-reregistration, and nz/dia/realme-verified-identity are all published; the registry's own voter-registration coverage across all 31 jurisdictions was re-surveyed this cycle (find registry -iname '*voter*' -o -iname '*electoral*') and every jurisdiction without a schema already has a documented dead-end or election-cycle-scoped-closed finding in CATALOG.md's own "Confirmed dead ends" section (AE: no general voter-registration process; BR: TSE register suspended through 2026-11-03; MX: INE credencial requires an in-person biometric appointment; CO: overseas-voter microsite decommissioned; etc.) — consistent with this same finding in every one of GOV-2005, GOV-2019, GOV-2026, GOV-2042, and other recent cycles of this recurring issue. Per this registry's established precedent, the brief's own generic phasing was therefore treated as a prompt to re-scan CATALOG.md's own "Known Gaps & Opportunities" section fresh, not as a literal, always-current to-do list.

That section's own item 1/3 flagged Portugal's Business Formation vertical as Portugal's sole remaining open gap (Portugal stood at 5 of its 6 verticals — Passport, DMV, Taxes, Visa, National ID all published — after GOV-1833/GOV-1797), twice re-screened and twice set aside (GOV-1750, GOV-1797) as "a real but comparatively weak backlog candidate," not a confirmed dead end. This cycle picked it up directly.

Sources examined

• Document (id, version): pt/at/declaracao-inicio-atividade-pessoas-singulares / 1.0.0
• Spec version: GovSchema 0.3.0
• Authority: Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira (AT), operating under the Ministério das Finanças (portaldasfinancas.gov.pt).
• Candidate 1 (re-screened, re-confirmed a dead end): IRN's "Empresa na Hora" / "Empresa Online" pacto-social specimens. The two prior cycles' finding ("scanned images with no extractable text layer") was re-verified from scratch rather than trusted: fetched https://justica.gov.pt/Servicos/Empresa-na-Hora/Pactos live (HTTP 200), which lists six pre-approved pacto-social model PDFs (SUQ-1-08, SQ-1-06-II, SQ-2-06-II, SA-06-II, SA-08-II, SA-15) at justica.gov.pt/Portals/0/. The most common single-founder case, SUQ-1-08 (Sociedade Unipessoal por Quotas), was fetched directly (curl with a realistic desktop User-Agent, HTTP 200, 687,898 bytes, 7 pages) and extracted with pdfjs-dist (getTextContent() per page, getAnnotations() per page): 0 characters of text and 0 annotations across all 7 pages — a pure scanned-image PDF with no AcroForm layer and no text layer whatsoever, independently re-confirming the prior cycles' finding rather than merely repeating it. Not pursued further.
• Candidate 2 (screened, rejected as too narrow): OCC's "MINUTA DE PACTO SOCIAL DE SOCIEDADE POR QUOTAS" (occ.pt/fotos/editor2/minutapactosocialsp.doc, a Word/RTF fill-in-the-blank template). Fetched and read: this template's own Article 3 restricts its purpose exclusively to "the exercise in common of the profession of Certified Accountant" per Decree-Law 452/99 — a professional-society (sociedade de profissionais) template for certified accountants specifically, not a general-purpose company-formation template. Rejected as out of scope for a general Business Formation schema.
• Candidate 3 (screened, rejected as too narrow a legal explainer): OCC's "Guia Prático — Sociedades Comerciais: Constituição e Início de Atividade" (occ.pt/sites/default/files/public/2023-09/Guia_Pratico%20-%20SocComA1.pdf, 57 pp., dated setembro 2023). Fetched and extracted with pdfjs-dist (86,775 characters across 57 pages — a genuine text-layer PDF, unlike Candidate 1). Its own table of contents (§5 "DO PACTO SOCIAL", §6 "DA FIRMA", §7 "DAS OBRIGAÇÕES DE ENTRADA", §11 "O CAPITAL SOCIAL", each keyed to specific Código das Sociedades Comerciais (CSC) articles) confirmed this is a legal explainer/practical commentary on the CSC's own provisions, not a field-by-field walkthrough of a specific application form or online wizard with concrete field labels and screenshots. Consistent with GOV-1750's own note that "the Código das Sociedades Comerciais statute itself enumerates a thin ~14-16 field list" — a real but comparatively weak basis to author against directly, since this guide paraphrases and cross-references statute provisions rather than presenting them as a discrete list. Not pursued as the primary source for this schema.
• Candidate 4 (selected): AT's own "Início de Atividade" informational leaflet — https://info.portaldasfinancas.gov.pt/pt/apoio_contribuinte/Folhetos_informativos/Documents/Inicio_atividade.pdf ("INÍCIO DE ATIVIDADE — Rendimentos empresariais e profissionais - IRS e IVA", 15 pp., dated março 2026 — the current edition). Fetched live (HTTP 200, 1,048,576-byte range observed, no login/CAPTCHA/WAF gate) and extracted with pdfjs-dist: a genuine text layer across all 15 pages (page-length text counts ranging 73–2,996 characters per page), unlike the companion "Início de Atividade" folheto at the same info.portaldasfinancas.gov.pt host referenced by a separate search result, whose own PDF stream markers (JPXDecode) indicate embedded JPEG2000 images rather than a scanned page — this leaflet's own content is genuine extracted text, not an image rendering. This is the sole-trader "Início de Atividade" candidate the prior two cycles (GOV-1750, GOV-1797) had each screened only as far as "the sole-trader 'Início de Atividade' self-service route remains a fully authenticated acesso.gov.pt wizard with no PDF fallback found" — true of the live wizard itself, but this leaflet is a distinct, previously unidentified official source describing that wizard's own field content in AT's own words, not a PDF fallback of the wizard itself. This is the same "official leaflet documenting a gated wizard's field content" pattern already used by this registry (e.g. the field content behind se/migrationsverket/work-permit-application's own authenticated portal).
• Retrieved / reviewed: 2026-07-10.
• Reviewer: GovSchema Engineering (Standards Engineer — initial authoring source review).

Bot-mitigation / access notes

None of the sources above required any authentication, CAPTCHA-solving, or WAF workaround to fetch their own text/PDF content (only the live acesso.gov.pt-gated submission wizard itself remains authenticated, which is expected and unchanged from the prior cycles' own finding — this schema models the leaflet's documented field content, not a live session capture). node tools/verify-sources.mjs registry/pt/at/declaracao-inicio-atividade-pessoas-singulares/1.0.0 reports "1 directory, 5 URLs checked, 0 warning(s), 0 allowlisted, all clear" — confirmed directly, immediately before opening this PR.

Extraction method

The selected leaflet (Candidate 4) was extracted with pdfjs-dist (a throwaway /tmp scratch install, not added to this repo's tracked package.json) via getTextContent() per page; Candidate 1's rejected SUQ-1-08 specimen was extracted the same way to independently re-confirm its zero-text/zero-annotation finding; Candidate 3's OCC guide was extracted the same way to confirm its own legal-explainer structure via its table of contents. No AcroForm/Widget-based extraction was applicable to any of the four candidates: Candidate 1 has no text or form layer at all; Candidates 3 and 4 are plain reference/informational PDFs with no fillable widgets (consistent with the underlying process being a live, session-authenticated online wizard, not a paper form).

What the leaflet maps to

The leaflet's own "DECLARAÇÕES DE ATIVIDADE" section states verbatim, under "Declaração de Início de Atividade": *"Antes da entrega, deve identificar:

1. Código(s) de atividade que vai exercer... 2. Volume estimado de negócios

até ao final do ano... 3. IBAN e BIC/SWIFT de uma conta bancária em seu nome..."* — this schema models exactly those three enumerated items, plus two supporting facts the same section explicitly ties to item 2's own computation, and the anticipated start date the surrounding prose ties to the declaration's own filing deadline:

• Item 1 ("Código(s) de atividade") → primaryActivityCode (required) and secondaryActivityCodes (optional, comma-separated — GovSchema v0.3 has no array/repeating field type; see SPEC.md §6.3, and this registry's precedent, e.g. sg/spf/driving-licence-application's licence-class field). Modelled as free text rather than an enum: the leaflet cites two code tables (art.º 151.º do CIRS for professional activities; CAE — Rev. 4 per Portaria n.º 1011/2001) together listing well over a thousand codes, neither reproduced by the leaflet itself.
• The mixed-operations note ("Caso indique que exerce, simultaneamente, operações sujeitas a tributação e operações isentas ao abrigo do art.º 9.º... deve indicar, apenas, o volume de negócios previsto para a(s) atividade(s) tributada(s)") → hasMixedTaxedAndExemptActivities (optional boolean), disclosed in estimatedAnnualTurnover's own description as gating how that value should be computed rather than modelled as a separate requiredWhen/crossFieldValidation construct, since the leaflet states an instruction for the declarant to follow when computing one value, not a rule this registry can mechanically verify without the declarant's own underlying activity-level figures.
• Item 2 ("Volume estimado de negócios até ao final do ano") → estimatedAnnualTurnover (required, minimum: 0). The leaflet is explicit this is not an annualised full-year figure but "o previsto para o período que resta do ano em que se verifica o início de atividade" (the estimate for the remainder of the year from the start date) — disclosed in the field's own description rather than left ambiguous.
• Item 3 ("IBAN e BIC/SWIFT de uma conta bancária em seu nome") → bankAccountIBAN (required) and bankAccountBIC (required), modelled as two fields since they are two independently-named identifiers for the same account.
• The declaration's own filing deadline framing ("deve apresentar a declaração de início de atividade, antes de começar a trabalhar por conta própria") → anticipatedActivityStartDate (required, date).
• The authentication channel ("após autenticação com o número de identificação fiscal e senha de acesso, ou Cartão do Cidadão ou Chave Móvel Digital") → taxpayerNIF (required, classification: sensitive-pii), the sole identifying field modelled — the same design decision this registry's own sibling schema pt/at/declaracao-rendimentos-irs-modelo-3 already made for its own taxpayerANIF field ("The Rosto does not itself print a free-text name field for the taxpayer; identification is by NIF alone, matched against AT's own records at the authenticated e-filing session"): no separate name/address field is modelled, since the leaflet nowhere states the declarant re-enters their own name or domicile on this specific declaration (already on file with AT from the declarant's own taxpayer registration).

What is NOT modelled (out of scope), and why

• The resulting IRS regime (Regime de Contabilidade Organizada / Regime Simplificado) and IVA regime (Regime Normal / isenção art.º 9.º / Regime Especial de Isenção art.º 53.º / R.E.P.R.) classifications themselves — the leaflet is explicit these are computed outcomes: "Em função do valor anual de rendimentos estimados da categoria B constante da declaração de início de atividade, fica enquadrado num dos regimes..." and "Em função dos elementos constantes da declaração de início de atividade, fica enquadrado num dos regimes IVA." AT determines both automatically from the declared elements this schema does model (chiefly estimatedAnnualTurnover and the declarant's own registered domicile/activity type, the latter not itself printed as a separate declared field by this leaflet); they are not themselves separate fields the declarant selects on this declaration.
• The optional election to waive the art.º 9.º CIVA exemption (art.º 12.º CIVA), the special flat-rate regime for agricultural producers (art.º 59.º-A CIVA), and the optional election of Regime de Contabilidade Organizada below the mandatory €200,000 threshold — the leaflet documents all three as elections made via a declaração de alterações (declaration of changes) — a distinct, separate filing from the declaração de início de atividade this schema models ("A opção pelo Regime de Contabilidade Organizada mantém-se válida até que entregue a declaração de alterações", and the REPR/art.º 53.º sections' own repeated "Entregar a declaração de alterações..." obligations) — nowhere does the leaflet attribute any of these three elections specifically to the initial início-de-atividade declaration itself. Deliberately left unmodelled rather than guessed, to avoid asserting a field placement the primary source does not itself state.
• The declaração de alterações (activity-change) and declaração de cessação (activity-cessation) declarations — the same leaflet documents both as separate, distinct filings from the início-de-atividade declaration this schema models; out of scope for this v1.0.0.
• The "ato isolado" (isolated act) cross-reference — the leaflet notes that if the declarant already performed an "ato isolado" earlier the same year, that value is excluded from estimatedAnnualTurnover's own computation, but is itself drawn from AT's own existing invoicing/billing records (e-Fatura), not a fact the declarant enters as a field on this declaration — excluded as a non-field.
• The legal-person (pessoa coletiva) equivalent declaration — the selected leaflet is explicitly scoped to "o contribuinte, pessoa singular" throughout; a company/legal-person's own equivalent início-de-atividade declaration (referenced only in passing by an unrelated search result, www2.gov.pt/inicio/espaco-empresa/balcao-do-empreendedor/pessoa-coletiva-residente-declaracao-de-inicio-de-atividade, not fetched or verified this cycle) is out of scope for this natural-person-scoped v1.0.0 and remains an open backlog candidate.
• The paper/counter-filed alternative at a Serviço de Finanças — the leaflet states this channel exists ("pode ser entregue através do Portal das Finanças... ou apresentada... por contabilista certificado" for the organized-accounting case) but no current blank paper specimen of it (e.g. a "Modelo 1953" reference found only in third-party, non-.gov.pt search results, not independently confirmed this cycle) was located or verified against a primary .gov.pt/.pt-hosted source; not modelled to avoid presenting an unverified form-number claim as fact.

Mock-data test run

Per this registry's established practice, a one-off Node.js script (not committed to the repo) checking every type/required/validation constraint in schema.json was run against two realistic scenarios plus four negative controls:

``` [PASS] Scenario A: sole-trader IT consultant, single CAE code, full field set [PASS] Scenario B: freelance translator, secondary activity code, mixed taxed/exempt operations [PASS] Negative 1: missing primaryActivityCode errors: missing required field: primaryActivityCode [PASS] Negative 2: missing bankAccountIBAN errors: missing required field: bankAccountIBAN [PASS] Negative 3: estimatedAnnualTurnover below minimum (negative value) errors: estimatedAnnualTurnover below minimum 0 [PASS] Negative 4: estimatedAnnualTurnover wrong type errors: wrong type for field: estimatedAnnualTurnover (expected number)

All scenarios behaved as expected. ```

Scenario A models a sole-trader IT consultant ("Código de atividade" 62020, Programação informática) starting activity with one CAE code, no mixed taxed/exempt operations, and a modest estimated remainder-of-year turnover (€18,000) — the simplest, single-activity case. Scenario B models a freelance translator (primary code 74300, plus a secondary code 85592 for occasional private tutoring) who reports mixed taxed and exempt operations, exercising both secondaryActivityCodes and hasMixedTaxedAndExemptActivities for the first time in this test run. The four negative controls confirm the check script enforces required top-level fields (primaryActivityCode, bankAccountIBAN), the validation.minimum constraint on estimatedAnnualTurnover, and its number type constraint, rather than trivially passing everything. No defects were found in the schema itself.

Both registry validators were run against the schema document and pass:

`` $ node tools/validate-ajv.mjs registry/pt/at/declaracao-inicio-atividade-pessoas-singulares/1.0.0/schema.json ok registry/pt/at/declaracao-inicio-atividade-pessoas-singulares/1.0.0/schema.json [v0.3] 1/1 document(s) validated against the meta-schema (ajv 2020-12). ``

node tools/verify-sources.mjs registry/pt/at/declaracao-inicio-atividade-pessoas-singulares/1.0.0 ("1 directory, 5 URLs checked, 0 warning(s), 0 allowlisted, all clear") was re-run clean immediately before opening this PR.

Scope and jurisdiction notes

• This is Portugal's 6th of 6 verticals (after DMV, Passport, Taxes, Visa, and National ID), closing Portugal to full coverage — the second non-original jurisdiction in this registry to reach 6/6, after Colombia (GOV-1616).
• New authority segment reuse: pt/at already exists (pt/at/declaracao-rendimentos-irs-modelo-3), since AT (Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira) is also the authority for this declaration; this is AT's second schema in the registry.
• jurisdiction.level is national: AT operates nationwide; the specific Serviço de Finanças office is not itself a field on this declaration (identity/domicile is resolved from the declarant's own existing cadastral record at the authenticated session, per the design decision above).
• process.type is registration (this declaration registers the declarant's business/professional activity for IRS/IVA purposes), the same convention already used by the closest structural analogue in this registry, Spain's es/aeat/declaracion-censal-alta-actividad-economica-modelo-036 (a natural-person "declaración censal simplificada de alta" for a directly comparable process).
• version set to 1.0.0: this document models one complete, self-contained declaration (the natural-person início-de-atividade declaration) in full for its own documented scope; the legal-person equivalent and the paper/counter-filed alternative are distinct, unverified candidates left for a future cycle, not partial coverage of this same document.

Re-verification

Per the practice's cadence, nextReviewBy is set to 2027-01-10 (6 months). A future review should prioritize: (a) locating and verifying a primary .gov.pt-hosted specimen of the paper/counter-filed alternative (the "Modelo 1953" reference surfaced only in third-party search results this cycle); (b) the legal-person (pessoa coletiva) equivalent declaration; and (c) re-confirming whether AT's own wizard has, by the next review, published any further field-by-field documentation (e.g. an updated version of this cycle's leaflet, or a step-by-step user guide of the live wizard itself) that could extend this schema's coverage of the election fields disclosed as out of scope above.