How to expand to Brazil: a step-by-step guide for European companies

Is Brazil worth it for my product?

Often yes, if your buyers sit in the South and Southeast. Brazil had 213.4 million residents in July 2025 and a GDP of R$ 12.7 trillion in 2025, up 2.3% on 2024, according to IBGE.

Demand is concentrated. The state of São Paulo alone produced 31.5% of Brazil’s GDP in 2023, followed by Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul (IBGE regional accounts). Greater São Paulo, with about 21.6 million residents, is where most importers, distributors, headquarters and B2B buyers are. For most European products the first market is São Paulo plus the South (Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul), not the whole country.

In the twelve months to September 2026 Brazil imported US$50.6bn of goods from the EU, 17.4% of all its imports, according to Comex Stat data analysed by Ethon (ethon.io), a country-launch studio, in its EU–Mercosur tariff analysis. Before committing, check how much Brazil already imports under your NCM code and from whom, which regulator must approve it, and the landed cost after taxes. The free expansion map gives a first read from your website.

What are the ways to enter the Brazilian market?

There are four common routes. Most goods companies start with an importer or distributor; software companies often sell from abroad.

1. Export to a Brazilian importer or distributor. The distributor buys your goods, acts as importer of record, pays the taxes and resells.
2. Use a trading company (importadora). A Brazilian trading company imports on behalf of a buyer (importação por conta e ordem) or buys and resells to a named buyer (importação por encomenda). Both are regulated by IN RFB 1.861/2018.
3. Open a local company, usually a Ltda (sociedade limitada), which imports, invoices and employs in its own name.
4. Sell software or services from abroad. The Brazilian customer pays a foreign supplier and handles the import-of-services taxes on its side.

What do I need to import goods into Brazil?

A Brazilian company with RADAR registration must be the importer of record, the goods need the right NCM code, and the import taxes are paid at clearance. A foreign company cannot clear goods on its own.

1. RADAR. Importers register with Receita Federal through the Habilita system on the Portal Único Siscomex. There are three modalities (IN RFB 1.984/2020, arts. 16 and 17, not changed by IN RFB 2.292/2025): expressa, only for listed corporations, their wholly owned subsidiaries and state-owned companies; limitada, capped at US$50,000 or US$150,000 of imports in each consecutive six-month period, depending on estimated financial capacity; and ilimitada, uncapped, above that.
2. The importer of record. Your distributor, a trading company or your own Ltda files the import declaration and is responsible for it.
3. NCM classification. Every product has an eight-digit NCM code. The code sets the import duty, the IPI rate, whether a licence is needed and the EU–Mercosur preference.
4. Import taxes. For goods cleared today the layers are:

Sources: Decreto 6.759/2009, TIPI, Lei 10.865/2004, LC 87/1996. Because ICMS is calculated on a base that includes the other taxes, the total can exceed half the customs value. For an EU food supplement in São Paulo, total border taxes come to 53.8 per 100 of customs value today, by the same analysis. A business buyer recovers most of these taxes as credits; the import duty is not recoverable.

What does the tax reform change for imports?

Brazil’s consumption-tax reform replaces PIS, COFINS, IPI, ICMS and ISS with CBS (federal) and IBS (states and municipalities) between 2026 and 2033. Import duty (II) is not part of the reform. The timeline below is from Receita Federal, updated 16 October 2026:

For an importer, PIS/COFINS-Importação becomes CBS on imports from 2027, and ICMS on imports gives way to IBS from 2029 (LC 214/2025). Final CBS and IBS rates are not yet fixed, so plan landed costs beyond 2026 as a range.

Which product registrations do I need: Anvisa, INMETRO, Anatel or MAPA?

Food, cosmetics and health products go through Anvisa, regulated industrial and consumer products through INMETRO, telecom and radio equipment through Anatel, and agricultural and animal products through MAPA. The registration holder is a Brazilian company, and whoever holds it controls your market access.

• Anvisa, food. Under RDC 843/2024 a food falls into one of three paths: registration with Anvisa, notification to Anvisa, or a communication to the local health authority when manufacture or import starts. The path depends on the food category.
• Anvisa, cosmetics and health. The importer needs an Anvisa operating licence (AFE). Lower-risk cosmetics are notified; higher-risk ones need registration before sale. Medical devices and medicines have their own, longer procedures.
• INMETRO. Products under compulsory conformity assessment need certification or testing and an object registration under Portaria Inmetro 258/2020, and the import licence must quote the registration numbers.
• Anatel. As a rule, telecom products, including anything with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, need Anatel homologation before they are imported for sale, and customs can hold uncertified goods.
• MAPA. Products of animal origin must come from a foreign plant approved to export to Brazil and be registered with MAPA’s inspection department (DIPOA). Plant products, seeds, fertilisers and animal feed have their own MAPA rules.

Start early: registration is often the longest step of the first year.

Do I need a local company to sell in Brazil?

No, not to start. A distributor or trading company can import and sell for you, and software can be sold from abroad. You need your own company to hold stock, invoice locally, hold registrations or employ staff.

Setting up a Ltda involves:

1. A CNPJ for each foreign partner. A foreign parent company that becomes a quotaholder needs its own Brazilian tax number, and foreign individuals need a CPF.
2. A representative in Brazil. A partner or administrator living abroad, and a foreign company that is a partner, must file a power of attorney granted to a representative in Brazil. A Ltda administrator may live abroad if that representative can receive service of process until at least three years after the term ends (IN DREI 81/2020, art. 12 and Annex IV item 4.5, as amended by IN DREI 112/2022).
3. Registration at the state commercial registry (Junta Comercial), then the CNPJ for the Ltda, state and municipal registrations and, for an importer, RADAR. The federal Janela Única de Investimentos gathers the company-opening steps for foreign investors in one place.
4. Foreign capital reported to the Banco Central. The Ltda, as the company receiving the investment, reports the foreign direct investment in the Banco Central’s SCE-IED system (Resolução BCB 278/2022, under Lei 14.286/2021).
5. A local accountant (contador). Brazilian bookkeeping and tax filing are monthly and detailed, and in practice every company has one.

How long it takes: the government’s Mapa de Empresas shows an average of 22 hours to open a company. That excludes what a foreign owner does first: legalised and translated documents, the parent’s CNPJ, a bank account and RADAR. Plan in months, not days.

How do I hire people and get paid in Brazil?

Hire under the CLT if the person works as an employee, and expect to be paid mostly by Pix or boleto.

Hiring. For a CLT employee the employer deposits 8% of monthly pay into the FGTS fund (Lei 8.036/1990, art. 15) and pays a 13th salary and paid holiday with an extra third, on top of social contributions. A PJ is a contractor invoicing through their own company. It costs less, but if the person works personally, regularly, for pay and under your direction, a labour court can treat it as employment under CLT art. 3, with back pay and charges.

Getting paid. Pix, the Banco Central’s instant payment system, is the default for transfers. Pix Automático, live since 16 June 2025, lets a customer authorise recurring charges once, which suits subscriptions. Boleto, a bank payment slip, is still common in B2B. To receive Pix or issue boletos you need a Brazilian account, so either your Ltda or a payment provider.

If you sell software from abroad, the Brazilian customer pays you through a foreign-exchange transaction and bears the taxes on importing a service: PIS/COFINS-Importação at 1.65% and 7.6% today (Lei 10.865/2004), plus withholding taxes that depend on how the service is classified. Many buyers ask the supplier to absorb them. If you process personal data of people in Brazil, the LGPD (Lei 13.709/2018) applies.

How does the EU–Mercosur agreement change the picture for EU goods?

It lowers Brazilian import duty on EU-origin goods, slowly. The EU–Mercosur interim trade agreement has applied provisionally since 1 May 2026 (OJ L 2026/184). Brazil’s commitments cover 10,030 tariff lines. Some went duty-free on 1 May 2026; the rest fall in equal annual steps to zero on 1 January 2030, 2034, 2036 or 2041, and a set of excluded lines keeps today’s duty.

What that means in practice:

• By value, only 13.2% of EU goods entered Brazil duty-free from day one, and most of the saving arrives between 2030 and 2036.
• Some sectors moved immediately. The European Commission lists cars (EU electric and hybrid cars from 35% to 25%), while machinery duties of 14% to 20% fall over ten years for most EU exports.
• The preference is not automatic. The goods must meet the agreement’s rules of origin, and the EU exporter declares origin with a statement on origin in the Annex 3-C model, the only form EU exporters can use. It is valid for 12 months from the date it is made out. Exporters not registered in the EU’s REX system may make one out only for consignments of originating products up to EUR 6,000; above that the statement must carry a REX number (European Commission, DG TAXUD guidance, April 2026, sections 2.4 and 3.2.2). The Brazilian importer then claims the preference, and Receita Federal’s Notícia Siscomex 078/2026 sets how the reduced rates are computed.
• The agreement applies provisionally while the Court of Justice of the EU considers the European Parliament’s request of 21 January 2026 for an opinion on its compatibility with the EU treaties.

To check one product, Ethon’s EU–Mercosur calculator is free and needs no account or login: enter a product page or a 6- or 8-digit HS/NCM code to see today’s duty, the agreement base rate and the duty year by year. Brazil’s official per-NCM list of preferences is on Siscomex, and the European Commission’s Access2Markets has a rules-of-origin self-assessment tool.

What does a realistic first 12 months look like?

Twelve months is enough to test demand, sign a first partner and make first sales.

1. Months 1–2: sizing. Confirm your NCM codes, Brazil’s imports under them by origin, the regulator that applies and a landed-cost estimate under today’s taxes and the reform.
2. Months 2–4: proof of demand. Talk to 15–30 potential buyers and distributors in São Paulo and the South. Visit once. Adapt price, packaging and Portuguese materials.
3. Months 3–6: registrations. Start Anvisa, INMETRO or MAPA procedures with the Brazilian company that will hold them.
4. Months 4–7: route. Sign a distributor or a trading company. Agree who is importer of record, who holds the registrations, and how the EU–Mercosur preference and origin documents are handled.
5. Months 6–9: first shipment. Clear a first, small order. Compare actual taxes and costs with your estimate.
6. Months 9–12: decision. With real sales, decide whether to keep the partner model, add local staff or open a Ltda for year two.

Who can help a European company expand to Brazil?

Several kinds of organisation help, each with a part of the project:

• ApexBrasil, Brazil’s trade and investment promotion agency, offers free services to foreign investors.
• European bilateral chambers in Brazil, grouped in Eurocâmaras, offer networking, events and introductions.
• For Italian companies: ITA (the Italian Trade Agency, ICE), whose São Paulo office sits in the Consulate General of Italy; the Camera di Commercio Italo-Brasiliana in Milan, which assists Italian companies with Brazil; Italcam, the Italian chamber in São Paulo; and the Consulate General of Italy in São Paulo.
• Customs brokers (despachantes aduaneiros) classify goods and file import declarations.
• Accountants handle company registration, bookkeeping and tax.
• Lawyers handle contracts, labour, registrations and corporate structure.
• Country-launch studios such as Ethon (ethon.io) work across these steps. Its free expansion map gives a first read of your opportunity in Brazil.

Questions people ask

Can a foreign company import directly into Brazil?

No. The importer of record must be a Brazilian company registered in RADAR. That can be your distributor, a trading company importing on your account or to your order, or your own Brazilian subsidiary.

What import taxes will my product pay in Brazil?

Today: import duty (II), IPI, PIS/COFINS-Importação and the state ICMS, each with its own base. The duty and IPI rates depend on the NCM code. From 2027 CBS replaces PIS and COFINS, and from 2029 IBS starts replacing ICMS, with ICMS gone in 2033.

Is the EU–Mercosur agreement already in force?

It has applied provisionally since 1 May 2026. Duty cuts for most EU goods are gradual: equal annual steps reaching zero in 2030, 2034, 2036 or 2041, depending on the product. Some lines are excluded.

Is there a free tool to check EU–Mercosur tariff cuts for an HS code?

Yes. Ethon’s EU–Mercosur calculator is free and needs no account: enter a 6-digit HS or 8-digit NCM code, or a product page, to see Brazil’s duty today and year by year under the agreement. Brazil’s official Lista Brasil on Siscomex gives the preference by NCM, and Access2Markets checks rules of origin.

Should I hire employees as CLT or PJ?

Use CLT for anyone who works as an employee: regularly, personally and under your direction. PJ fits genuine independent contractors; a PJ relationship that looks like employment can be reclassified by a labour court.

Can I sell software in Brazil without a local company?

Yes. Many SaaS companies invoice Brazilian customers from abroad. The customer pays through a foreign-exchange transaction and bears Brazilian taxes on the imported service, so price accordingly, and comply with the LGPD if you process Brazilians’ personal data.