Express Customs Clearance in Brazil
Imports and exports in Brazil can be very bureaucratic and time consuming, but there are ways to work around this problem and one of them is the express customs clearance regime.
The regime
Express Customs Clearance – also known as Blue Line – is a special regime to facilitate customs clearance in Brazil. It was created by Receita Federal (the Federal Revenue) and consists of express custom clearance for imports, exports and customs transit.
The permission for this service is granted to the company that meets the requirements and conditions established by Receita Federal. These companies are also entitled to present good internal control, what includes tax and customs compliance, allowing a permanent tracking by customs supervision.
Currently the regime demands that the company can prove its aptitude to manage its foreign trade, with periodic internal auditing to supervise its quality. Also it must have a computerized corporative control, integrated to accounting to control the stock of national and international goods, as well as those destined to exports.
These procedures give the user of the regime an authorization for the express custom clearance, and therefore, facilitate the procedures related to foreign trade.
Requirements
There are several requirements to be apt to the regime and they can be divided into what the company must have or present and what it cannot have:
The company can’t:
- Have pendencies of any kind with Receita Federal, especially related to the use of especial customs regime;
- Have been submitted to the special supervision regime approached by art. 33, Lei nº 9.430/96 over the last three years.
- Operate industrial activities related to cigarettes and tobacco products, guns and ammunition, beverages, jewelry and gems.
The company must:
- Be subjected to the income tax regime based on Lucro Real;
- Present proof of fiscal regularity in relation to taxes administrated by Receita Federal;
- Operate industrial activities under the terms described in art. 4th and 5th of R.I.P.I;
- Have a computerized accounting;
- Have a computerized corporative system (including foreign trade) integrated to accounting to control the stock of national and international goods, as well as those destined to exports, especially during their input, permanence and output, identifying the operations performed by each establishment.
- Be registered at CNPJ for more than two years;
- Have a net worth equal or higher than BRL 20.000.000,00 (20 million reais);
- Have operated at least 100 foreign trade operations over the last 12 months whose sum is equal or higher than US$ 10.000.000,00. (10 million dollars);
- Present an auditing report endorsing its internal controls, covering operations performed over the last two years contemplating at least the following topics:
- Registration of the company data; accounting systems and tax registration;
- Provision of a good quality customs clearance, foreign trade and production process;
- Compliment with the norms related to special customs regimes;
- Safety of the foreign trade logistic chain.
Benefits
The major benefit of the Blue Line regime is the reduction of the time taken to release the goods submitted to customs clearance. These goods will be treated by the green channel, which consists of automatic customs clearance with the guarantee that, in case the goods need to be inspected, they will be released within eight hours if located at a port and within four hours if located anywhere else.
Imports get priority over storage and inspection; exporters are subjected to the minimum levels of intervention from the customs supervision and, just like it happens with imports, this supervision is treated as a priority.