Import Without Import License
To import a good to Brazil a few documents must be acquired, the import license is one of them, but sometimes it's not required. Find out when and how to import goods without an import license.
Importation is good for a country and is also normally a complex process, and importing something to Brazil isn't an exception. It's necessary to be aware of all of the documentation required for this process, always remembering that the documents requested varies from each sector and/or from each product. However, one thing is similar to all importation to Brazil: the issuance of an Import Declaration (DI).
The DI characterizes the beginning of the import process, informing important and fundamental information about the goods to be imported and allowing the customs clearance of it. The DI must be elaborated by the importer or by his legal representative through the SISCOMEX.
Another important document related to imports is the Import License (LI), which contains information about the commercial, fiscal and stock exchange nature of each good to be imported and also comprises data about the:
- importer
- exporter
- producer
- country of origin
- country of destiny
- country of acquisition
- NCM – Common Nomenclature of Mercosul
- good specification
- Incoterm
- value
- place of embarking
- purchase condition
- quantity commercialized
- taxation regime
- exchange cover.
Import Types
Both documents are connected, but only one of them is mandatory, the DI, while the LI could be requested or not according to the three types presented in the administrative system of Brazilian importation:
- importations exempted from LI
- importations subjected to automatic LI
- importations subjected to non-automatic LI.
By registering the DI, the importer must pay attention to the requirements of the LI. The legislation provides penalties for those who registered the Import Declaration with no license when the operation is subject to licensing.
There are also penalties for licenses obtained after the shipping of the goods, when they should have been provided prior to the shipment in abroad, or if shipment occurs after the expiration of the validity of the license. In all these cases, the penalties will be applied by the tax auditors of the Federal Revenue, Receita Federal, of Brazil.
When an Import License isn't Mandatory
As a general rule, the Brazilian importations are exempted from import licensing, being that the importers responsible for the registry of the Import Declaration at the beginning of the import process. But in some cases the LI is requested as a previous consent to the importation of some products.
The Import License sometimes works as a protectionist measure for the market, for example, if a country wants to export pens to Brazil with a lower cost that the one suggested by the national production of pens, the government can request a LI for this country's pens, in order to avoid the arrival of more competitive foreign pens that could harm the national trade of this product.
Importations Exempted from LI
According to the Law SECEX 10/10, the goods exempted from import license are:
- Over customs and industrial warehouses regimes, including goods comprised in RECOF.
- Over temporary admission regimes, including goods comprised in REPETRO.
- Over special customs regimes in the types of free store, bonded warehouse, free warehouse and special warehouse.
- With reductions in the import tax (II) rate derived from the application of ex-tariff
- Of industrialized goods designated to the consumption in international conferences, exhibitions and fairs and other similar events.
- Of pieces and accessories covered by guarantee contracts.
- Of donations.
- Of cinematographic films.
- Related to the return of material remitted to abroad for tests, exams and/or researches activities with scientific and industrial purposes.
- Of Samples.
- Of leasing: simple lease, rent or chartering.
- Of foreign capital investment.
- Of products and situations that aren't subjected to the automatic or non-automatic licensing.
- Over the temporary admission or re-importation regime.
- Over the nationalization of machines and equipment that had entered the country through the special customs of temporary admission to the economic usage, approved by the RFB.
When there's no need for the issuance of an import license, the importer must, himself, authorize the embarking of the good and when the customs clearance process started in the arrival of the good in Brazil, the importer must present the DI issued through SISCOMEX.