Costs of brokerage services in Brazil
Getting your products into Brazil is a crucial step for the establishment of your business in the country. With that in mind, we have made a selection of the most common services related to brokerage in Brazil and what its average costs are.
What do we mean by "brokerage services"?
The word "broker" can be related to several professionals, but what we realize is that in all cases a broker is a sort of intermediate between a person who needs a service and the service itself. So a customs broker would be the professional taking care of all the exporting or importing process in Brazil.
The process of customs clearance requires a customs broker, who will be in charge of all the clearance formalities. Besides taking care of all the clearance process, this professional will also prepare a forecast that not only includes the import duties and taxes, but also an estimative with expected charges and expenses involved in the process and in the logistics.
This forecast is called “Numerário” or “Solicitação de Adiantamento”, what means that the customs broker will present the amount of charges and expenses involved and request that the client pays in advance, so that the broker can manage the money accordingly to the demand. When the process is over, the broker will present all receipts in order to justify how the client’s money was spent.
Among the provided services by this professional are:
- The formulation of the import and export documentation;
- The hiring of transportation and insurance;
- The hiring of bonded warehousing services;
- Customs clearance;
- Control of foreign exchange payments;
- Air and sea shipment.
These attributions are divided in several different services that will be explained in the article.
Costs
Costs can vary significantly from one broker to another and the payment method also varies. Some brokers use minimum salaries as a currency (they charge in minimum salaries instead of establishing a fixed value), some others have an established value plus a percentage correspondent to the commission and some others would rather have a fixed value that would include the cost of the service and the commission. What we did was to come to an average and then use a fixed price.
Have in mind that these are the general costs for basic services. If other modalities are required, then prices will increase. Also, according to Anderson Neves from Nevesco Trading and Logistics the customs broker will calculate the commission based on the good. Additional charges may be applied to cargos subject to special authorization from Anvisa or MAPA (food Control), for example.
Banking Charges
Involves all the fees related to payments and money transfer.
- Foreign exchange contract (contrato de câmbio): BRL 60,00 to BRL 200,00. The charges are paid to the local bank to transfer the payment of the commercial invoice amount).
- IOF (Impostos sobre Operações de Crédito): the federal government charges an amount of 0,38% over the value of the commercial invoice.
Local Charges at Destination
These fees are charged by the local agent in charge of cargo freight forward. This agent is responsible for releasing the Bill of Landing (BL) or Airway Bill (AWB) to the importer. The charges description and values can change a lot based on the relationship between the agent and the client, frequency of the shipment (if the shipment is constant, then a better price can be arranged), the value of the freight, etc.
Air Shipment (per AWB):
- “Desconsolidação”: from BRL 80,00 to BRL 160,00;
- Delivery fee: from BRL 40,00 to BRL 100,00;
- Handling: from BRL 80,00 to BRL 160,00;
- Collection fee: 3% over freight value, if collected (minimum of BRL 80,00);
- Airline fee: BRL 40,00 to BRL 80,00;
- IOF: 0,38% over the freight value.
Sea Shipment
- Bill of landing (BL): BRL 150,00 to BRL 280,00 per BL;
- “Desconsolidação”: BRL 160,00 to BRL 300,00 per BL;
- Handling: BRL 120,00 to BRL 200,00 per BL;
- Siscarga TRS (AMS): BRL 40,00 to BRL 50,00 per BL;
- ISPS code: BRL 20,00 to BRL 60,00 per BL or container;
- Capatazias (THC): BRL 30,00 to BRL 50,00 per TON-CBM (LCL cargo) BRL 550,00 to BRL 700,00 per container
- Collection fee: 3% over the freight value, if collected (minimum of BRL 80,00);
- IOF: 0,38% over the freight value.
Warehousing Charges
Airport Storage
The prices given below are for airport storage and are based on the prices practiced in cities like Guarulhos, Campinas and Brasilia. The cost is a percentage over the CIF value.
- Up to two business days – 0,75%;
- From three to five business days – 1,50%;
- From six to ten business days – 2,25%;
- From 11 to 20 business days – 4,50%
- For each 10 business days beyond the fourth period (from 11 to 20 business days) until the retrieve of the good there is an addition of + 2,25%.
- Capatazias (THC): BRL 0,0307 per kg (minimum of BRL 10,00)
Storage in Ports
The upcoming prices are for storage in ports and are based on Santos terminal.
- Storage: 0,50% to 0,65% over the CIF value Minimum – BRL 550,00 to BRL 700,00 per LCL cargo; Minimum – BRL 900,00 to BRL 1200,00 per container;
- Handling: BRL 300,00 to BRL 400,00 per parcel/container;
- Inspection: BRL 150,00 to BRL 250,00 per parcel/container;
- ISPS Code: BRL 30,00 to BRL 50,00 per parcel/container;
- Weighting: BRL 40,00 to BRL 60,00 per parcel/container;
- “Presença de carga”: BRL 70,00 to BRL 80,00 per container;
- Storage Insurance: 15% over the storage value;
- Taxes: ISS –3%; COFINS – 4,65% over storage/charges amount.
Customs Clearance Charges
- Customs Broker Commission: BRL 700,00 to BRL 3.000,00 per Import Declaration;
- “Taxa de expediente”: it is a fee charged over the services rendered and the cost is of BRL 100,00 to BRL 200,00 per import declaration;
- SDAs (Union Tax): 2% over the CIF value (minimum of BRL 385,00 and maximum of BRL 882,00)
- Siscomex fee: BRL 185,00 per import declaration plus BRL 29,50 per each tariff/HS number.
Drawback
Drawback corresponds to any form of tax or tariff that is rebated to the payer. The purposed of this practice is to let commodities which are subject to taxation be exported and sold in a foreign country on the same terms as goods from countries where they are untaxed.
This service includes several stages, such as:
- Viability for the suspension regime
- Registration of the Import Declaration with the suspension of federal taxes and ICMS
- Price exemption and reduction from the AFRMM and ATAERO tariffs
- Issuance of documents required to the analysis and approval of the manual “ato concessório”
Costs: in average, BRL 650,00.
Temporary exports and admission
- Emission of DI / DSI / RE / and DDE
- Emission of Termo de Responsabilidade (responsibility term)
- Extension of the Termo de Responsabilidade according to the current legislation
- Nationalization of the temporary admission
- Re-exportation of the temporary admission
Costs: BRL 1000,00.