Transfer money to Brazil taxes

I think if the money is already taxed in the UK, you should be ok but it might be easier to send via Wise or Revolut to be honest. The bank will likely take a hefty cut (in my past experience) and its always easier for you and her to deal with via an English speaking party like the above if you are asked to prove the source of the funds.

Someone else here might be able to answer that more technically though.

As a new permanent resident of Brasil, I have been transferring money regularly from the U.S. to my bank account in Brasil.  I plan to use the money to buy a house there, as well as make some investments (e.g., some friends and I are lending money to a couple of brothers in Manaus so that they can buy a boat to give tours).  Anyway, I have been using Remitly, as it gave me the best exchange rate.  However, they (and/or their bank - Banco Daycoval) have apparently become suspicious of my transfers and requested a bunch of documents from me.  I understand them trying to keep an eye on money laundering and support that.  However, I couldn't provide some documents (all of the utility bills are in my partner's name) and didn't even understand what some of the documents were (they wanted copies of "cashier's checks" from the past several months - I am sure that there was a translation problem there but they sent me the messages in English....).  But what was particularly frustrating was that I would explain that I couldn't provide the information, yet they would simply just request the same documents without any explanatiion or effort on their part to understand the problem.  I provided the documents that I could but finally had to tell them to cancel the transfer.  I'll use another company (Wise or Remessa).  Has anyone else had this problem with Remitly or other money transfer companies?  It's hard to send enough money to Brasil to buy a house if the government and/or banks have so many road blocks.

Use EX

@timhoffnagle

Good morning,

I just wanted to let you know you were not alone.  I am also getting a new house, but in the small Northeastern village I live in we buy property and build.  I am also extending money to my wife to buy a new car (me and my daughter both totaled previous cars so I owe it to her).

i have been transferring money thru Remitly. I also had no problem in the beginning, then problems at the end.  Same here. Requesting large amounts of documents which I appreciated for security reasons, then it got out of hand. i have money in PayPal that I wanted to spread out to my account in Banco Do Brazil.  After the traditional photo of my driver's license, they asked for a bank statement from Wells Fargo.  I told them it could not be done. Then thru the app I got a message for a bank statement showing recent transactions at Banco Do Brazil.  This one I could do. After I sent that one it seemed to clear the way until I got a phone call from Marcos of Remitly. He was nice and I was super appreciative that I could talk to someone there in English. I had previously gone through XOOM, the traditional transfer partner for PayPal.  Same thing but ABSOLUTELY NO communication or reasons given.  He was calling from Latin America, and I also explained to him that it could not be done. PayPal uses Wells Fargo, but I do not communicate with them or even receive bank statements from Wells Fargo.  The conversation picked up the next day with another pleasant person saying they needed the statements. My career was in Media Sales, but after I retired, I spent time contracting with some household names for customer service. I knew that she had notes from Marcus, but they were one-sided. "i instructed the customer..." etc. but did not include my reply.  I explained to her also that I would do a three-way call with PayPal for them to explain their relationship with Wells Fargo.  She called me again and said (I also liked the fact that i pretty much talked to the same person, a rarity in customer service) that she had googled information and could see there was not a solid connection.  This time it went through and is scheduled to deposit in my account on the 14th.

So, I was hesitant to switch, however I received an email from them a good 4 or 5 days after we started the transaction saying it was cancelled. This time with no "we just need." so I guess this is it.

Please let me know which one you went to next and what happeed

Roddie in Retirement

Paypal shares all your account information and every transaction you do with Facebook. If you don't like this, find a different way to do business.

So they say PayPal has solved a lot of problems for me. I am staying with them.

@timhoffnagle @roddiesho

The requests for documentation are normal and will occur after you have transferred a certain amount of money to Brazil within a certain timeframe. According to Wise (and I believe this applies to all transfer services) if you send over 10k USD in a transaction or that amount over the course of 365 days, there are local and federal regulations in Brazil that may require the transfer services to request documentation to complete the transfer.

Here's a nice overview:

https://wise.com/help/articles/2655506/sending-large-transfers-to-brazil

Here is an overall guide about sending money to or from Brazil in USD:

https://wise.com/help/articles/2932353/guide-to-brl-transfers

I have been asked for all sorts of documentation over the years.  Bank statements, pay stubs, tax returns,  ID, etc. I have been asked for the same thing multiple times (not on the same transaction, but I have been asked for a tax return twice in the same year involving separate transfers). 

I typically supply the requested documents by email, using well labeled file names along with a short summary letter explaining the documents (the letter is never requested or required, I just thought it to be good practice).  I have never had an issue completing a transfer.

Usually the trickiest thing for people to supply are source of funds documents.  This is because they could be a wide range of documents, depending on the circumstance.  The source of funds documents are intended to show where the money you're transferring came from. 

Sometimes they will ask for a specific document, and other times they will give you some examples, but it's up to you to figure out what is appropriate to furnish as the source of funds.

In the case of the former circumstance, the biggest challenge I would have is when they requested a bank statement showing the funds.  If I transferred money right after getting paid, but before a monthly statement was generated, I would send a screen shot of my checking account transactions, and that would usually satisfy the requirement.

In the case of the latter circumstance, where I needed to figure out what was appropriate to send, in some cases it came from my salary, so I supplied either bank statements or pay stubs to show this.  Sometimes the funds came from real estate transactions.  For this I would supply the signed settlement statement.

None of the documentation has ever needed to be notarized or translated, so if you have appropriate documentation, just send it, and that should be it.

Here's a page describing various documents which may be requested:

https://wise.com/help/articles/2976418/what-documents-might-i-need-for-a-large-transfer

None of this should affect smaller transfers. 

Large transfers, or many over time which add up to a large amount may trigger this, which is why it may seem as thought the requests come randomly and are often unexpected. 

One last point: I don't know why, but since moving to Brazil I have not been asked for documentation to support transfers to Brazil, even once.  Not sure if they've loosened up over time, or it has something to do my my resident or tax status, or is just coincidence.

02/10/23 @timhoffnagle @roddiesho
One last point: I don't know why, but since moving to Brazil I have not been asked for documentation to support transfers to Brazil, even once. Not sure if they've loosened up over time, or it has something to do my my resident or tax status, or is just coincidence.
-@BRBC

I think a lot of banks let their verifications slide during the pandemic and that the Banco Central turned a blind eye because the banks were running on skeleton crews in a lot of places.  Some banks then got a little panicky when things opened up again to get their files in order ASAP.  I believe that accounts for the problems I had last April with Wise/Banco Rendimento; BB had a similar file cleanup but they're only two blocks away, and we resolved it in an hour.

By June things seemed to be back to mormal, but your timing and status may have helped, too - and the luck of the draw.

@BRBC

Great Info!!! My wife is building a house for me on her property (I guess moving to the couch was not enough). Unfortunately, I am the go-to guy for financing, so I am always transferring money to vendors etc. The original plan was to put a large amount in Banco Do Brazil, unfortunately this happened with Remitly just when I started to move funds.

I think it was the total amount that did me in. Now we just discovered online shopping from some of the big Fortaleza Malls that deliver, so hopefully I can use my PayPal till next year.

Also, in my part of Brazil they come by occasionally and sell door to door.  Yesterday the bed guys came by and showed off.

a nice soft Queen bed.  Brought the trailer truck and 4 guys on a house visit.  So, i do not have to worry about shopping for a new bed.

Thanx,

Roddie in Retirement

@BRBC

Thanks Again!

For the source of funds, except for soc. sec. most of my money is from my inheritance after Dad passed. My younger brother was the trustee and sent my dispersement to PayPal (we had used this many times before).

How does Wise look at Inheritance as a source etc.?

Roddie in Retirement

Here's what Wise says about that:

Inheritance

If your money comes from inheritance, we might ask to see documents that show:

• the date you received the money
• the amount you received
• the name of the person who made the will
• the signature of the person who made the will
• your relationship with the person who made the will

Here are some examples of documents you could use:

• a signed copy of the will
• a grant of probate or court document
• a letter from a solicitor
• bank statements showing you received the money
• any other proof

It comes from this page:

https://wise.com/help/articles/2976418/what-documents-might-i-need-for-a-large-transfer

@BRBC

Just to verify the $10k transferred in 365 days could not be end of 2022, beginning of 2023 counting as two years but if I started transferring in November 2022 and everything up until now.

Roddie in Retirement

@BRBC,

Thanx, the answer to ALL the questions are My Younger Brother and Our lawyer.

We might not have been simpatico on certain things, but we made an amazing team taking care of DaD before and After.  In fact one of his last wishes was to take care of his Brazilian wife. That's where I am. At 96 my Brazilian wife took her from R.I. to her place in Northern Brazil.

Thanx,

Roddie in Retirement

Yes I believe it's a rolling 365 days, so if your first transfer was November 1 2022, then that would start the counter to November 1 2023. Don't quote me on that, but based on the fact Wise says 10k in 365 days, and not 10k per calendar year, I think it's a rolling 365 days.

@BRBC My quick math with PayPal says we have plowed thru $7K in money transfers so far (total 365 days). Needless to say, we have to find some strategy of getting some of the money into Banco Do Brazil without transferring it. We have robust funds, just not able to use it. The idea was always to pay bills, purchase appliances using Banco Do Brazil. Unfortunately, things did not work that way, we are still weeks later waiting for the bank card (something about it being stuck in Sao Paulo).

Roddie In Retirement

There is nothing preventing you from transferring large sums of money to brazil in a 365 day period.  The only reason not to would be if you can supply the source of funds documentation. Even then the transfer company will refund your money so you're not at risk of loosing anything except time and perhaps some small transfer fees depending on the circumstance. If documentation is not an issue, then transfer away!

I exceed the 10k threshold every year. Some times they ask, some times they don't.

Hope this helps.

@timhoffnagle yes! I used Remitly to pay for service and even rent. I'm trying to buy a car so I requested for an increase for transfer fee limit. They sent me a bunch of questions and said they will respond back shortly. Then all of a sudden I got an email saying my request was declined AND my account has been closed. I called them to ask what I did wrong and why they would just cancel my account. The stated that I “broke the rules” some how and they won't go into further detail with me.

Anyone else recommend a site where I can transfer usd to pix? I do not have a bank account here yet. Still waiting on my residency card to arrive.

@ChicagotoSaopaulo XE transfer gives a better rate than remitly and wyse. You can also transfer upto 500k usd so its not limited as much as the others. Not sure it can go to pix though

@ChicagotoSaopaulo I don't know if Wise will transfer money directly to a PIX id (either the email address, phone number, etc. that a person may associate with their bank account), but I do know that PIX is used to do the transfer, and your funds show up in seconds.  I use Wise to transfer money to my own BB account.