Do retirees from abroad have to pay taxes in Brasil??

Brazilian law requires that income from any source, including government retirement payments, above a specified amount is taxable income.

If you transfer your income to a Brazilian bank, the government will know your income. If you withdraw your money using an ATM card, the money is considered differently.

Regardless of how you obtain your money in Brazil, you probably won't like the fees involved. However, I find the fees tolerable.

There is another provision of the law that might make your income non-taxable. Various physical conditions considered permanent disability entitle a person to be exempt. You may want to investigate this possibility. Even having had skin cancer is one condition.

Creativity is the Brazilian way.

Skype me at bill_brazil if desire more info.

If I were you, and I retire to Brazil, I would leave all my income in my home country.

I´d  use my ATM to get cash and pay bill like rents, food, recreation etc and whatever extra expenses I´d use my credit card. Why? Your conditions change including Brazil
and you might want to get back home.

I wouldn´t want my money to be managed by them since they do a lot of FUNNY things with your money once they get hold of it. Suddenly your account is transferred to a "conta corrente" which has a high maintenance fee without your knowledge or the government changes regulations like one time there was a "taxa de movimentacão financeira" which is the way the government collect fees when you move finances within your account.

Yes, the government would know your income if you deposit your pension funds automatically to a Brazilian bank. I´m sure you would get a poor exchange rate if they
send your pension in euro. If your bank or government send them in reais, then you´ll
probably get a better exchange rate.

Get a multiple pre-paid visa debit cards that you can recharge at your own will as your needs arise. There are times when some banks reject your card, probably due to their ATMs card reader malfunctioning so the extra cards give you a peace of mind and versatility as you move from one ATM to another even extending to other banks... You can separate your cards for each expense like groceries, recreation, bills, etc. And you get the current and better exchange rate thru visa. You recharge them when the exchange rate is better. Isn´t that nice? YOU have the control! You only recharge them
minutes before you go to the ATM machine...

You´re very mobile financially especially if you travel a lot like me!

robal

Bill, I would not open this can of worms. I am retired from my first career and do the ATM shuffle. I opened an account at Bradesco and it was fairly easy. Used a bill at my residence and RNE card. They did ask for proof of income and I told them I would return with it later... They are still waiting...it's been 3 months. In the mean time I have full use and no one has contacted me. It also makes it easy to withdraw at Bradesco ATM and immediately deposit in my account at the same machine. Then I go home and pay bills with my phone.

Good luck, I consider Robal our resident expert in this department. Listen to him and enjoy your freedom.

I use my credit card and Debit card to get money. My money stays in my USA bank account until I need it. It works very well for me.

Jim

I'd like to reply to each one of you who took te time to give me some valuable input.

The thing is this - i am a bit confused here.
In the info sheet of requirements for this retirement visa the BR Ambassador to Budapest gave me at the beginning of this year it says one has to transfer the amount of 6000 Reais (or the pension all together) to a Brazilian bank each month .... but, judging by your answers neither of you has done so and i assume you do have that visa nonetheless anyway, right??

So, which is it really, am i free to chose how i spend / in what countries bank i keep my 6000 Reais per month (which would be clearly my choice too)??

The thing with credit or debit card from my EU bank/s i understand because i have done this from the beginning on already (have been here as tourist, incl. with "pseudo illegal" extension of my stay and last year i paid my rent via SWIFT to my landladies ITAU account - boy what a shocker that was, i think it was some 20 or so percent they took as "exchange rate"!!
This year i paid into her US bank account from my EU bank account and there's no issues because i can send USD at my EU banks reasonable exchange rate.
During my first year here i used to run about 4 times to ATM's (also mostly ITAU) and it was a nightmare, some ATM's would appear to work - until they were supposed to spit out the cash, but didn't - just to find out they charged my bank back home anyway with the withdrawal. Since than never again ITAU, use Bradesco these days and have not had an issue, but going more than once or max. twice a month to an ATM should be all one has to do here, and that would not work if i had to pay rent in cash as well.

This is a quote from Wikepedia

Foreign nationals aged over 60 can apply for a permanent visa if they have a pension of at least US$2,000 per month and will transfer it to Brazil every month. Visas may also issued to dependants, but there is a requirement to transfer an additional US$1000 of pension per dependant per month. Documentary proof of the pension and a bank declaration authorizing the monthly transfer are required. Applicants for permanent residence visas are required to submit their passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate (if applicable) and a police certificate of no criminal record, issued within the last 90 days. Starting in 2014, retirees with serious health problems have been denied visas even if they have a sufficient pension because some have abused Brazil's free and universal health care by coming to Brazil with a retirement visa for the sole purpose of obtaining health care.

The income tax can be above 25%, OUCH!

If after your GF retires you are going to be traveling, do you really need a permanent visa? Could you get by on 180 days per year instead?

When you do a transfer bank-to-bank, the Brazilian bank will use its own exchange rate - always worse than the mid-market rate.

An afterthought. If the relationship is serious - maybe marriage is the better option. That is another way to get  a permanent visa.

In my case, rules were different then and it was easier to come to Brazil...

robal

BillBrazil wrote:

An afterthought. If the relationship is serious - maybe marriage is the better option. That is another way to get  a permanent visa.

The easiest way is having Brazilian children to get permanent residency. When I applied we skipped the marriage one because it was a huge pain. Going through the children was beyond easy.

This is a good discussion. So far, the consensus is, Brazil taxes all foreign incomes, including SS and pensions. However, if the money remains offshore, the consensus is there is no need to declare it in your tax filing. The reason is at this time, Brazil does not have the capabilities to obtain a report of your foreign incomes.

Are the above statements correct?