Countries are competing to preserve skilled young workers

In 2020, before Duarte Dias, a Portuguese software engineer, a work offer to work for Microsoft.

After a little more than a year, he joined a team at the Microsoft headquarters in Seattle, where he is still working.

Although he is absent from his comfortable Portuguese approach to life, and the spirit of the family -like team in work environments there, he does not regret, not for one second, to follow an international profession.

Mr. Dias’s decision has become easier through all the financial impact of movement.

The ruling of the spreadsheet was clear: staying in Portugal will be a financially destructive.

“I have been simulated about the amount of money that I will save a year in Portugal, and I quickly realized that I will not be able to have a financially comfortable life, even if I got one of the most good functions available in engineering for the level of my experience,” he says.

Function for two years in Portugal while Mr. Das concluded his masters at the Lisbon Institute, Técnico strengthened his condemnation: his annual income reached 35,000 euros ($ 36,000; 29,000 pounds).

But his salary at home was much lower.

His income placed in a tax chip, which means up to 40 % of this total salary went to the state.

“It was financially bad. It will be very difficult to save money if I do not live with my father,” he recalls.

The move to Ireland meant an immediate increase in the horizons of his salary, as it doubled nearly 60,000 euros.

Money is better in the United States, as it now earns more than $ 160,000 before the income tax rate by 20 %, much lower than home.

Mr. Dias plans to return to Lisbon within two years with “with many savings”.

The conservation of skilled workers, such as Mr. Dias in Portugal, was a concern for modern governments.

In 2020, the administration led by the Socialo Party, Antonio Costa, launched a program of tax discounts for workers under the age of 30 and graduated from the level of education.

In 2022, 73,684 taxpayers benefited from this incentive, according to official data.

After early elections in March, the new Portuguese government led by Louis Montenegro multiplied and expanded from five to 10 years, and to all workers under the age of 35 years than their educational levels.

This proposal, which was approved by the Portuguese Parliament in late November, is scheduled to benefit up to 400,000 workers, according to the Portuguese Ministry of Finance.

But specialists say it is likely that it is not enough to prevent young people from going abroad.

Sergio Vasquez, professor of tax law at the Katone Lisbon School, says.

It indicates that the Portuguese government still takes more than the average worker’s salary more than most richer countries.

The percentage is known between the amount of taxes paid by the average individual factor without children, known as the tax sides.

this The eighth is between 38 Member States of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

“This tax system is an enemy of qualified work and professional success. This system will not solve this problem,” added Mr. Vasques.

“I cannot also imagine a young professional who decides to move to Portugal just a few hundred euros at the end of the year,” says Mr. Vasques, who is also a foreign minister of tax affairs in early 2010.

“The low -skilled worker will not make a decision accordingly. Portuguese food may be better as an incentive to move here from this tax system.”

Rita de La Veria, head of the LEDS tax law, states that the exit of youth is not just a Portuguese problem, and that Europe is wrestling with young immigration challenges.

According to the study of its Portuguese Parliament’s request, as of July, in European Portugal, Poland and Croatia had special tax systems based on taxpayer ages.

She said: “The challenges are very clear: the workers move higher. The problem is that the country spends very large amounts of training to leave for other countries as soon as they enter the workforce.”

Mrs. De La Veria, who moved to the United Kingdom at an early age, told BBC that when she left Portugal, she did not intend to “leave forever: many leave their countries while they will return at some point. But as soon as they form a family, it is almost impossible to return.”

Antonio Al -Mida, a software engineer like Mr. Dias, left Portugal during the epidemic in late 2020 for a job in Berlin, immediately after the completion of his testimony. He said he would change the German capital of Brussels after two years. All his experience was working abroad.

“In 2020, we offered us monthly salaries of 1300 euros, GROSS, in Lisbon. Berlin offered me 4,200 euros for a beginner role.”

Even with a 40 % income tax rate in Germany, there was a large net profit. “It was not a difficult decision,” says Mr. Al -Mida.

Now in Belgium – where taxes are higher, he does not tighten – returning to his homeland is not a priority. “I am thinking about returning in the end, mainly for family reasons.

“But at the present time, my life standards are very high and I love the way of the life of Central Europe. The main problem in Portugal is low salaries, not taxes.”

Mr. Al -Mida does not consider Portuguese tax changes as a major factor when thinking about the pros and cons of return home.

“Even today I did not think about it.”

“The salaries outside Portugal will always be higher, and everyone who does not have any personal or family links in the country will not have any kind of financial or job incentives to stay there.”