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Permits and Licenses to Operate your Business in Brazil

The Brazil Business

Updated

10 September 2012

Brazil is known for its bureaucracy and long list of requirements before opening a company. We have a made a selection of all the six main steps involved in the process, as well as how long it takes and how much it costs.

1. Apply for a Construction Permit

The first step is to go to Secretaria Municipal da Receita e do Patrimônio Público Imobiliário - which is the local department in charge of public real estate – provided with the following documents:

Certification of usage and occupation of the soil
Real estate clearance certificate
Architectural project
Note of technical responsibility stamped by Crea
RG and CPF

The average time for the emission of the permit is of 45 days and the cost is of BRL 130,00.

2 – Apply for “Habite-se”

After receiving your construction permit (alvará de construção), you must return to Secretaria Municipal da Receita e do Patrimônio Público Imobiliário and present the following documents:

Construction permit (alvará de construção)
Real estate clearance certificate
A version of the architectural project with all the changes that were required during the construction permit process.
RG and CPF

The average time of conclusion is of 20 days and the cost is of BRL 110,00.

3 – Registering for the article of association

The next step is to register the article of association. This registration is made at Junta Comercial do Estado, which is the state board of trade. For this, the following documents must be presented:

Article of association (the original version and two notarized copies, one of them with a notarized signature)
CNPJ (National Register of Corporate Taxpayers) and inscrição estadual, which is the registration on ICMS
Notarized copy of the RG;
CPF ( the taxpayer identification number)
Proof of residence (both private and corporate)

This step takes up to 30 days and the cost is of BRL 280,00.

4 – Business License

A business license (or “alvará de funcionamento”, as it is called in Portuguese) is the most important document to open a business in Brazil. It guarantees the operation of a business activity of any kind and is obtained at Secretaria Municipal da Receita e do Patrimônio Público Imobiliário, which is the same department where the construction permit was issued. The issuance of this document is divided into two stages:

First stage: for this part of the process, the following documents must be presented:

Real estate clearance certificate
CNPJ
Articles of association
RG and CPF

Second stage: Sanitary permit (this subject will be approached on the next topic)

5 - Sanitary Permit

This document is included in the second stage of the business license process. The two documents are strictly related as one depends on the other: to issue a sanitary permit, you must take a document proving that you have issued a business license and to complete the process of getting a business license, you need a sanitary permit. In order to issue this document, you must go to Secretaria Municipal de Saúde e Vigilância Sanitária, which is the department in charge of supervising if sanitary requirements are being met.

For this part of the process, the following documents must be presented:

A document proving that you have issued the business license
A document proving the health of all employees, issued by a sanitarian
A document proving employment relation with the pharmaceutical in charge
The floor plan
CNPJ and article of association

The average processing time is of 20 days and the cost is of BRL 400,00.

6 – Completing the process

Now that you have the sanitary permit, you must take it to Secretaria Municipal da Receita e do Patrimônio Público Imobiliário. The average processing time to get your business license is of 20 days and the cost is of BRL 220,00.

Beyond 135 Days

As we can see, the total processing time is of 135 days and the cost is of BRL 1145,00. However, these are the estimates for Brazilians entrepreneurs who already have all the required documentation. Also, it is important to say that public institutions such as the department of sanitation is constantly on strike and due to the amount of accumulated tasks, the processing time may be longer. When it comes to foreigners, things can get even more complicated.

Just to give an idea, foreigners have no CPF. As this identification number is required not only to open your business, but even to open a bank account, every foreigner living in Brazil must issue one. If you are already in Brazil, go to Banco do Brazil, Caixa Econômica Federal or to the local post office carrying your passport or RNE. The cost is of BRL 5,70 and your CPF number will be available within 48 hours, but it takes up to 15 days to receive the card.

CNPJ is your company's federal taxes ID and it can be requested through Receita Federal website. All required documentation is sent through the mail to Receita Federal. The average time goes from 15 to 20 days.

Now that the CNPJ was issued, the entrepreneur or his representative must take it to the board of trade or to the public records and request the registration of the company and its accredited representative. Issuing the article of association usually takes from 20 to 30 days.

So from the initial 135 days, we ended up with 185 days at least. And this is considering that all provided information is correct. Also, it is considerably expensive to register a company in Brazil in comparison to other countries, such as Canada, where one can open a company for BRL 315,00.

It is also important to say that all costs presented in this article consider that the entrepreneur will be in charge of the bureaucracy himself and not through the services of a lawyer. As there are no national rules regarding how much lawyers can charge for their services, prices vary 1.241% throughout Brazil.