Opening a company in Brazil

Opening a company in Brazil can be extremely complicated and takes a lot of time. We strongly advise to outsource this service. Anyway, here’s brief description.

General information

Brazilian rules and regulations are old and resrictive: it takes  up to 152 days to start doing business in Brazil and 43 documents must be presented, whereas in other countries, such as Ukraine, the process takes 12 days and the number of documents is 7.  Step 1. Business location

  Write down everything related to business, such as place, machinery, number of employees and facilities. Then check the legislation of the city where your company is going to operate. It is important to be sure that the building you have chosen to establish your business is in line with your line of business. Consider ecological issues: business specifics and legal requirements.

Step 2. Registration and Operation

It is important to check with the board of trades if there is no other company already registered with the same name you are planning to give your company. Register company in National Department of Commerce Registration. For this registration it is necessary to present the article of association and each partner’s tax ID and ID card, (in Brazil, CPF and RG). You will then receive an identification number known as NIRE (Número de Identificação do Registro da Empresa). Now you can obtain a CNPJ (National Register of Corporate Taxpayers) and a DECA (Registration Declaration).

Both documents state that the company is now able to pay taxes. CNPJ is your company’s federal taxes ID and DECA is your state one. These registrations are the easiest ones as both of them are requested online. Both must be requested at the Receita Federal website. The required documentation is sent through Sedex to the Receita Federal and the reply to the founder will be made online as well.

3. Business License

Business license to be obtained at the municipal finance department. Licensing allows  localization and operation of commercial, industrial, agricultural, services establishments, as well as institutions and associations related to legal entities or private people.

4. Registration at the Social Security

To hire employees, thus to to handle labor requirements, the company has to register at the Social Security. The entrepreneur or his representative must go to the board of trade or the public recorde, in possession of the CNPJ and the article of association, and request the registration of the company and its accredited representative. The registration deadline is of 30 days after the company has started to operate.

5. Fiscal Equipment

To finally begin to operate, the company has to request the printing of invoices and the authentication of accounting books. For that, service providers will have to go to the local prefecture, whereas companies related to industry and commerce must go to the State Department of Taxation and Finance. Once the fiscal equipment is ready and registered, your company can finally start to operate.

Costs of opening business in Brazil

Costs related to opening a company in Brazil differ a lot from state to state, but in general, the process is expensive, besides taking too long, as it involves the legal and other services. If you decide to do everything on your own, the average cost to open a business in Brazil would be from  BRL 2.038,00, still much higher comparing to other countries, such as Colombia (BRL 1.213,00) or Canada (BRL 315,00). The highest costs to open a company are in Sergipe,  and Rio de Janeiro wherethe there are the highest costs related to authentication of documents within the public records.

Contact us for more information about company creation in Brazil.