Money Transfer

I am a little confused. Are you the beneficiary of the trust?

Who is the Trustee?

Are you a Permanent Resident? (Investor PR? BR may only allow investment in a company.)

If the US trust allows, you could arrange funds for purchase to be sent to the seller (make sure you have an attorney/advisor that has an escrow-type account}. Does the trust allow the purchase of international real property? Will the trust change tax status by doing this transaction?

Brazil really does not have Trust. I found this out when I was doing my estate planning. You may have foundations for passing assets. (Now this is for individuals. Businesses may be different. Brazil is not like an offshore account with tax benefits allowed by the IRS.

I would also talk with the attorney that prepared the Trust. S/he should help. Trusts are often used in the US, but many do not really know the tax ramifications and language used in trusts.

IMO you would be spending a large sum to have it tied into a company in which you are not a principal unless you obtain a PR!!!

Bottom line you need an international financial advisor and international lawyer. Not many of these are on a Blog!

Hi

It is absolutely a must that the money to pay for the apartment needs to be transferred under the buyer's name. The reason for this requirement is that the money gets registered with the central bank here in Brazil. The paper trail will help you in the future in case you want to repatriate your funds. Now, if you decide to buy the property under a company name, things get a little bit more complicated. First you need to open a company in Brazil. Since you are a foreigner, the law requires you to have a Brazilian or someone with residency in Brazil as a partner. The partner can own as low as 1% of the company but he needs to figure as a partner in the company. After you open the company , you need to open a bank account with the company's name and transfer the money from the US to it.

The money transfer has to bear your name….same requirement again. Transferring money to your company adds another level of bureaucracy because now you have to file papers to the receita federal/ Brazil equivalent of the IRS to register those funds as attached to the company. In the first scenario of you buying the apartment and not the company , the money registration with the central bank is done automatically. No need for you to do anything.

The other issue with a company buying the apartment is that you will encounter a whole host of complications when selling the property at the end unlike buying it under your name.

Please do not trust anyone telling you to use an escrow account in Brazil . No such thing here.

Feel free to contact me . I will walk you through the whole process

"Please do not trust anyone telling you to use an escrow account in Brazil . No such thing here."

I used English, but my attorney did open a "buyers account for me to transfer my funds, It had my CPF # At closing I released the funds to the buyer.

Escrow may not be the correct term, but it does exist.

The only other way I know of , and I have used it is through Moneycorp. They are a reputable company. They have offices in London, Florida and Brazil. You transfer the amount to their account /banco rendimento in São Paulo. They lock in the transfer rate. By the way, their rate is better than normal bank transfer. They will require some due diligence from both seller and buyer . After completing the property transaction , they will release the money to the seller. This is by far the safest way.

There is another way also but it involves you trusting your Brazilian realtor. I stress again. It has to be a % trustworthy person. I have used this method with my realtor after dealing with him a few years. It involves giving him power of attorney to receive the money in his account for the purposes of paying for the house you are buying. Not all banks in Brazil will accept this approach but ITAÚ bank does. I used this method only in cases I was not here in Brazil personally and there was a property deal I could not pass

I used English, but my attorney did open a "buyers account for me to transfer my funds, It had my CPF # At closing I released the funds to the buyer.

The thing is that the buyers account you used had to be under someone's name. All bank accounts do. Either pessoa física or pessoa jurídica meaning  real person or company, corporation etc…. Since , as a non resident, you cannot open a bank account here in Brazil the buyers account was obviously opened under someone's name. I may be wrong but my gut feeling tells me you caught a break.

By the way where in Texas are you from?

Facilitators charge lot of money for not so much work. If you are opening a company to receive the money. I would recommend using a facilitator. Shop around . Some ask for 5000 reais . Others want 20.000 reais. Bottom line for someone who is not familiar with Brazil , use a lawyer but only after doing your research . Lawyers here have a reputation for screwing their clients. The only protection you have is not to wire the money other than the seller. As I said again , the only 100% proof system in place is MoneyCorp. They specialize in these transactions. They will require matrícula from the seller as well as tax returns. From you they will require the source of the money. After they do their due diligence, your money stays with them until the deal is over and the property has been transferred to you. You will need a realtor to help you navigate the process of acquiring the title and registering it. Easy process but since you are not familiar with it better hire a realtor. It should not be more than 1500 reais for the realto plus fees for the cartório and stamp tax ITBI. As a matter of fact the realtor of the seller should handle it for you for free since he is getting his 6% commission for selling the house. Conclusion . Whatever you do keep your eye on the money part of the transaction so it does not end up in someone else's account than The Who is actually selling you the apartment

From Houston, but worked in Midland/Odessa, McAllen, and Longview. (Had my ranch outside McAllen.)

The attorney was a family member and had my name and wife's last name on the account. (Long process to change her last name in Brazil)

Austin, texas

Great eats on 5th street. Always did the Austin/San Antonio weekend trips to get my foodie hanker'n.

Yeah . And south congress . El suco . Great Mexican food. Great margaritas

Thanks for the super helpful info, I would be grateful to get your input on the below (and some additional info)!

1) I am in the process of obtaining my digital nomad visa so this should grant me residency and the ability to open a company as the sole owner.

2) The Brazilian Company that I will set up will have a US LLC listed as the owner (an LLC that I will be in sole control of).

3) The purchase money is sitting in a US Trust of which I am a beneficiary but not the trustee.

4) I would prefer to send the money from the US Trust directly to an intermediary such as MoneyCorp when purchasing the apartment to give some level of protection. What paper will the US Trust be required to show MoneyCorp?

5) After the purchase, will I then file papers with receita federal so that the the US Trust will be registered as having sent the money? Or should the US LLC be registered as it is the ultimate owner?

6) Ultimately, the Brazilian company will close on the apartment and be listed as the owner. Since it is staying out of the money transfer process, will this create issues down the road (either for tax deductions going forward (such as depreciation, as the property will be an income producing property), or for eventually repatriating the money upon sale)?

7) I expect the property to produce revenue of about R$400,000 a year. Any advice on setting up a tax regime for this property? And if the Brazilian Company isn't directly paying for this (As money is going straight from the US Trust) will the Brazilian Company have issues depreciating the property?

8) I have a lawyer / facilitator that I am considering using (recommended by @rraypo, thanks again for that!). They are asking for R$50,000 to be the lawyer for the sale of the apartment (diligence, contract, closing, etc) and to set up the Brazilian company. They want another R$15,000 to facilitate the transfer of the money from the US. Any idea on whether these fees are anywhere close to market?     

Thanks so much!

05/02/22 @Daring12. Money transfer

I would think that with that big an investment planned, an Investor Visa would be more straightforward and involve less uncertainty for you than a Digital Nomad visa.  Have you considered that?

05/02/22  Hi, Daring12,

I'm not sure how you came by the notion that the Digital Nomad visa has any special tax advantages, but I don't see it.  If you spend more than 180 days in Brazil during a single year, the Receita Federal is going to be looking for taxes from you, whatever your visa or the source of your income.  Brazil and the United States do not have a tax treaty, but Brazil does have policies to shelter foreign residents from SOME double taxation.  Several people have offered you tax advice so far, and I'm sure that what they've told you is true, or what they believe to be true, for their particular situations, but everyone's case is different, and the only person who can give you the advice on Brazilian taxation that you should treat as authoritative is your own Brazilian tax advisor that you choose for yourself and find trustworthy. 

What you propose to do is eminently doable, but not as a do-it-yourself project, unless your Portuguese is extremely fluent, and you have reasonable familiarity with Brazilian commercial law and the establishment and maintenance of corporate entities here. 

You're going to have to break the project up into manageable pieces.  Since you're already in the process of getting a Digital Nomad visa, you might as well come with that.  You will probably need to change your status as your investment develops -- Digital Nomads are not allowed to have earned income from Brazilian sources, and whether they can have Brazilian investment income is still an unanswered question -- but for now, the year-long residency period will give you some flexibility.  During your first weeks in Rio, get registered with the Federal Police and get the process for for CRNM, your resident identity card, started.  This gives you regular status so that, among many other things, you can open your own bank accounts, and be a signatory for the accounts of the entities that you establish.

Next, you need to find an attorney and an accountant that you can trust.  Rraypo's person sounds good, but I believe that he's in São Paulo, and I think you'll need someone in Rio.  If you already have a network in Rio, ask them for recommendations.  Start a thread here in Expat asking expats who live in Rio for recommendations.  If you need your professionals to be English-speaking, be very open about that.  Your attorney should be familiar with real estate law, and at least be willing to learn some rudiments of immigration law, because you'll need advice on your status as your business develops.  You can identify Brazilian attorneys on jusbrasil.com.br, and contact them and start interviewing them as soon as you get to Rio.  If you find an attorney you like before you find and accountant, ask him/her for accountant recommendations, and vice versa.  Rio has a reputation for being particularly crooked, so if you have any bad feeling about any of the people you interview, even if you can't define it, trust your gut.

Once your team is in place, you can start working with your Brazilian attorney and accountant to set up your Brazilian entities.  Around this point, when you are ready to start transferring funds from your US trust to your Brazilian entities, if limitations around the Digital Nomad visa start appearing, your attorney should be able to help you change your Authorization of Residency to "Investor" without slowing you down too much.

Art. 2o As atividades previstas nesta Resolução poderão ser realizadas pelo imigrante na condição de visitante, devendo ser observadas, de acordo com a nacionalidade, as regras aplicáveis ao prazo de estada e à exigência de visto de visita.

Whether this will translate to taxes or not I believe still remains to be seen. My hope is it will and for now I would rather be in a situation where there is a chance that I won't be taxed than in a situation (investment visa) where there is no chance. However, I will definitely keep in mind the investment visa when doing this and leave that avenue open.

Thank you for the rest of your invaluable advice as well!

I just had a consultation with an attorney who told me that a U.S. state LLC can buy property directly in Brazil and be listed on the deed. I may end up going this route—transfer money from US trust to US LLC and then from US LLC to an account in the name of the US LLC in Brazil. The attorney mentioned that there is one bank that he works with that allows non-residents to open accounts in their name without having residency in Brazil and he suspects they will allow a U.S. LLC as well. The bank charges ridiculous maintenance fees (R$1000 a month) but to keep it open for a month or two to get this done might very well be worth it. Has anyone heard of such a bank (he wouldn't tell me the name until I hire him and I have some reservations about using him as he is a U.S. attorney who is very familiar with Brazil but I will still need to get Brazilian  local counsel to handle the purchase in addition to him).

05/02/22  Daring12 -- you're welcome.

1) From this blog entry (link below) it appears that opening a bank account at Bradesco is possible without an RG. I now that runs contrary to all popular wisdom but I am just too curious if this will work and I may just give it a try and report back (and if it works I can go down in expat lore). I have written to the author and will report back if I find out any additional info.  Probably will not help me for my real estate purchase as I need to open an account for a US LLC, but I will try anyways.

[Link does not work. Google "How to Open a Brazilian Bank Account as a Tourist" Tough Nickel to find the article]

2) I think I may have found this mysterious bank. Does anyone have familiarity with Banco Rendimento? Link to the portion of their site that deals with opening an account as a non-resident is below.

Al, you had mentioned you once entertained the idea of working in Brazil. You should be a justice.

You are a hell of a lot smarter and more thorough than most of them! 

I attempted to purchase Brazil bonds opening a Rendimento account last year ....they did promise me that it could be done .... however I ran into some kind of "catch-22" on the website application, I've forgotten the exact details, and no one at the bank would help me out ......

Daring 12

If you read that old link it states a tourist needs RG or RNE. That is not going to happen on a tourist visa.

I have been with Bradesco for years (prior HSBC) I bank at HSBC US and HSBC BR said no way to open an account with our being a PR.

I Bank at Bradesco. For 2 years they requested US Bank Statement(s) and tax returns. Whatever! Good luck.

05/03/22  Banco Rendimento appears to be legit.  At least, they're Wise's partner for transfers to Brazil.  I've had a bad experience with them (you can read the whole, sad story if you like in Post #36 of this thread:  https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 41#5395445)  But that may be a one-off.

As with any Brazilian bank, when everything is not exactly right, they get wrapped around the axle fast; as Mikeflanagan said in a recent post, as soon as they think that something may be off, everything comes under scrutiny.  With a local branch, like my Banco of Brasil branch here, you can go sit in the branch manager's office with all your relevant documents and resolve it all in a couple of hours, tops.  Banco Rendimento is in São Paulo, and they have a weird, customer-unfriendly policy of giving themselves at least three working days to respond to any email request, so a simple paperwork mixup might need a week or two to resolve.  They say that they have phone and WhatsApp attendants, but those just feed into their computerized queues.  From Inubia's post above, it sounds like their impermeable bureaucracy eventually defeated him too, as it did me.

Banco Rendimento got eleven monthly transfers to me with no problems before it all blew up, so they might be just fine for you.  But if they're your bank, keep a month's worth of living expense money in cash in your sock drawer at all times ... just in case.

***ETA*** I read that toughnickel link many moons ago.  I'm not sure whether it was ever true, and I don't think it is now.  But if you try it and it DOES work for you, please give us an update, because that would be valuable info.

Semi off-topic. PIX has just issued new scams on the government site! One person lost $R 30.000,00.

With the CB strike and now PIX scams, just wondering about security on government sites?