Money Transfer
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05/02/22 @Daring12. Money transferI 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?- @abthree
@abthree I did, thanks. However, I plan on staying in Brazil most of the year and I have US W-2 sourced income coming in and I don't want to run in to an issue of having to pay taxes on my US sourced income. Given that, I decided to go the digital nomad route as it is designed to protect my US sourced income form being tripped up by the Brazilian tax code even though it is only a one year visa and may end up annoying in other respects. But welcome your input on that if you think it is better to get an investment visa instead. Â
I do read some hope in to the fact that Article 2 of the DN authorization legislation (copied below in its original Portuguese) refers to the DN “na condição de visitante†as opposed to a resident.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.
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).
@Texanbrazil keep reading down. The rest of the blog entry goes on to say that Bradesco is the one exception and goes in to detail on how to accomplish it there.
- Brazil does not recognize trusts
- Therefore in order to transfer the money from a US Trust to Brazil, you first needed to transfer the money to either yourself in the US or to an LLC in the US. I chose an LLC as it is safer for asset protection purposes.
- The US LLC will need to be registered with a CNPJ in Brazil. (I am using an agency to do this for me at the cost of R$700)Â Â
- Once the US LLC has a CNPJ, the US LLC itself can open up a bank account in Brazil in the name of the US LLC. Probably not all banks will allow this but Banco Rendimento allows this (the account comes with a fee of R$30 a month) (Banco Rendimento has terrible customer service so again using an agency to intermediate the setup)
- Once the account is open in Brazil, your US LLC bank account can then transfer USD to the Banco Rendimento account using an intermediary transfer agency (maybe it is possible to send directly to Banco Rendimento but I haven't found this out yet. Would be great if possible as then can cut out the transfer agent commission so if anyone knows about this it would be super helpful!!)Â
- Given the complexities, I am using an agent to intermediate (feel free to ping me for the contact of the agent, they have been very helpful!) for establishing the account for me at Banco Rendimento and the actual money transfer. Their fee will be about .5% (on top of the IOF) of the transfer (not fully sure if they are giving the mid-rate like transferwise so it may actually be a bit worse than .5%). So not a small amount of money but given the complexities probably worth it for me in the end. Â
- The US LLC can then be listed as the buyer of the property (helpful for asset protection and for business tax issues) and is allowed to operate in Brazil, so this avoids the need for opening any Brazilian companies in the future.
- The banks and transfer agent still require Brazilian Know Your Customer diligence. In this case they are asking for the information on the Trust (the original source of the funds - the trust document and tax return), the US LLC (constituent documents and loan documents between the trust and the LLC) , and myself (as I am the manager of the US LLC; the personal diligence is very limited though (no tax returns)),
- Additional side info -- There are two ways to transfer the funds from the trust to the US LLC. Either a capital infusion or a loan. If it is a capital infusion, they will require more diligence on the trust. If it is a loan there will be less diligence on the trust. There are asset protection advantages of setting it up as a capital contribution (and listing the trust as the member of the LLC) but the diligence requirements on the trust are then very extensive. I chose to set it up as a loan to simplify the diligence. However, I set up the loan with a foreclosure clause pledging the shares of the LLC as collateral to the trust. So if the loan to the trust is not paid back, then the LLC reverts to the trust in the future (obviously not my intention not to pay the loan, but just how it is being setup as some collateral is necessary) (can also have tax implications in the US if the apartment appreciated in value). Â
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