Start with the good news. Portugal lets you look up a company without asking anyone's permission. The certidão permanente is the online certificate of the commercial registry, and the registry service says plainly who may order one: "Qualquer pessoa ou empresa pode pedir uma certidão permanente" — any person or company. You do not need to be Portuguese, you do not need a lawyer, and the seller never learns you looked.
You pay, you get an access code by email, and the code replaces the paper certificate. Open it whenever you like: it shows the position as it stands that day, not as it stood when you bought it.
What it costs — as published by the registry service, page last updated 17 April 2026:
The three certificates people confuse
- Commercial registry certificate — €25 for one year of access (€40 two years, €60 three, €70 four). Carries the registered entries and the applications still pending. Available in English.
- Registry and documents — €55 for one year. The same, plus the documents on which the entries were based — except the accounts-filing documents, which the registry excludes expressly.
- Annual accounts (IES) — a separate certificate again, ordered on its own. Also available in English.
That exclusion is the first thing worth knowing. A buyer who orders the €25 certificate and believes they have "the company file" has the register, not the paperwork behind it and not the accounts. Seeing all three means three separate orders. Nothing is hidden — but nothing is bundled either.
The pending column is the part people skim. The certificate shows applications that have been filed and not yet registered. In a business sale that column is where a change of ownership, a change of manager or a capital movement sits while it is in progress. A certificate read only for what is already registered can show a company that looks settled while something is halfway through.
Four things buyers assume are in there, and are not
None of these is a defect of the certificate. They are simply kept somewhere else — and the whole reason a registry extract feels reassuring is that it looks complete.
What the commercial registry does not answer
- Tax debt. Not a registry entry. It is confirmed by a separate certificate from the tax authority. Your step: require the seller to obtain a current one and hand it to you, dated — you cannot pull it yourself.
- Social-security debt. Also a separate certificate, from social security, and also the seller's to request. Your step: ask for both certificates in the same message, and treat a delay on one of them as information.
- Court and enforcement proceedings. The commercial registry is not a litigation record. Your step: ask the seller directly, in writing, whether any proceeding touches the company, the business or the premises — and keep the answer.
- Licences and the lease. Whether the activity is authorised, and on what terms the premises are held, live with the municipality and in a private contract. Neither is in the registry. Your step: request the licence or authorisation and the full lease with its clause on assignment, before any deposit.
There is a second-order point here that matters more than the list. A trespasse transfers the business, not the company. If you are buying the establishment rather than the shares, the registry tells you about a legal person you may not end up owning — useful for knowing who is on the other side of the table, but not a description of what you are buying. Which of the two you are doing changes every answer, and it is worth settling first: trespasse or cessão de quotas.
So what is the €25 actually worth? A great deal, for the questions it answers. It tells you the legal name and number, the registered office, the object, the capital, who is registered to bind the company, what has been registered over the years and what is in progress right now. If any of that contradicts the advertisement or the seller's account, you have found something real, on the day you found the listing, for the price of a dinner.
It is a starting point that happens to be public. It is not a report on the health of a business, and it was never meant to be.
Source: Instituto dos Registos e do Notariado — Pedir Certidão Permanente, page last updated 17 April 2026, retrieved 9 August 2026. Certificate types, prices and the exclusion of accounts-filing documents are quoted from that page. Prices change; check the page before you rely on a figure.
The registry is the first layer, not the answer. A Deal Screen reads the registry entries against the licence, the lease, the court and insolvency records and the seller's own story — and names what none of them can settle. Two pages, 48 hours, signed by me.
Check my deal →Basis: the published service pages of the Portuguese registry authority, cited above so you can check every figure yourself. This note describes what a public document contains; it is general information, commercial opinion, not legal or tax advice, and not a statement about any particular company or listing. Registry practice and fees change — the date of retrieval is stated for that reason.