Setting up business in Sau Paulo

Hi phatima,

Brazil is one of the most bureaucratic countries in the world in terms of setting up and operating a business. It's simply impossible to set up and then continue to operate a business here without the ongoing assistance of both a lawyer and an accountant.

On average it can take 130 days to get throught all the necessary steps and submit the mountains of documents necessary to get a business registered and legalized on the federal, state and municipal levels all at the same time. In most other countries you can get a business up and running in 30 days.

Then there's the fact that Brazil has the most complex set of tax laws in the civilized world (not just my opinion, but that experessed by almost all finance and business experts worldwide). You will spend a greater percentage of your company's income just to comply with all the tax requirements. You will need constant support from both the legal and accounting end. For example, I've read that there is a Canadian company that operates in Brazil and they have a staff of 300 people that only deal with the taxes, income taxes deducted from employee salaries, corporate taxes, sales taxes, etc. While at the same time in their Canadian operation which is much larger the same tax related jobs are handled by THREE people.

Doing business is no picnic in the park here that's for sure. I guess that's why so many Brazilians don't register small businesses, they just work informally and accept all the financial, legal and criminal risks that go along with that.

  Cheers, 
  William James Woodward – Brazil Animator, Expat-blog Team