How Foreign Companies Pay Brazil's Import CBS & IBS (2026–2027)

If you manufacture abroad and sell into Brazil, the reform that everyone has been reading about as an invoicing project has quietly become a customs project. Brazil’s dual VAT — CBS and IBS — now applies to the import of goods, and the person who owes it is the importer. Not the seller, not the freight forwarder, not automatically the trading company you hired. The importer.

That sounds simple until you try to identify who the importer actually is under the new law, and discover that in the most common structure used by foreign sellers — importação por conta e ordem — the taxpayer is not the trading company that clears the goods. It is the party that bought the goods abroad.

This guide is the import-specific companion to our two existing pieces on the reform: the CBS/IBS compliance guide for foreign companies, which covers the e-invoicing cutover, and the rental-income guide for landlords. Here we deal only with goods physically crossing the border on the formal line.

Every legal claim below is tied to a specific article of the primary text — Lei Complementar nº 214/2025 (as amended by LC nº 227/2026), Decreto nº 12.955/2026, the Receita Federal instructions on the CNPJ and on Siscomex habilitation, and Instrução Normativa ITI nº 36/2026 on digital certificates. Where a rule is still pending, we say so rather than guessing.

What do CBS and IBS mean for a foreign company importing into Brazil?

1. CBS and IBS apply to imports of goods, regardless of the importer’s habituality, purpose, or registration status (LC 214/2025, art. 63).
2. The taxpayer is the importer, defined as whoever “promotes the entry” of foreign goods into national territory (art. 72, I).
3. In conta e ordem, the taxpayer is the adquirente — the party that acquired the goods abroad — and the trading company is a joint debtor (art. 72, sole paragraph; art. 74, I).
4. Payment is due by the time the goods are delivered after being submitted to despacho para consumo, even if delivery precedes customs release; the importer may elect to pay earlier, at registration of the import declaration (art. 76 and §1º).
5. A foreign-domiciled company may legally be the importer of record (IN RFB 1.984/2020, art. 4º, §2º, III) — but only through a Brazil-domiciled representative (IN RFB 2.119/2022, art. 6º, §1º).
6. Digital-certificate issuance now runs a biometric match against Brazilian identity databases (IN ITI 36/2026, arts. 5º and 10) — which is why the representative, not the foreign owner, is the identity anchor.
7. 2026 is a test year with collection waived for compliant taxpayers (art. 348, §1º). The date that matters is 1 January 2027, when the DUIMP becomes systemically mandatory for IBS/CBS.

What changed on imports under the Reforma Tributária?

Emenda Constitucional nº 132/2023 replaced Brazil’s fragmented consumption-tax stack with a dual VAT, regulated by Lei Complementar nº 214, de 16 de janeiro de 2025, and amended in 2026 by Lei Complementar nº 227/2026:

• CBS — Contribuição sobre Bens e Serviços — federal, administered by the Receita Federal do Brasil, replacing PIS and Cofins.
• IBS — Imposto sobre Bens e Serviços — shared between states and municipalities, administered by the Comitê Gestor do IBS (CGIBS), replacing ICMS and ISS.

The operational detail arrived on 29–30 April 2026 with two parallel regulations: Decreto nº 12.955/2026 for CBS (620 articles) and Resolução CGIBS nº 6/2026 for IBS (617 articles), each with five technical annexes and a near-identical structure.

On the import side, the architecture is compact and worth reading in order:

Element	Rule	Where
Incidence	Applies to imports by any person or entity, registered or not, whatever the purpose	LC 214/2025, art. 63
Taxable event	Entry of foreign-origin goods into national territory	art. 65
Moment	Occurs on release of goods submitted to despacho para consumo (and other listed events)	art. 67
Place	Place of delivery to the final recipient — this fixes the state/municipal IBS rate	art. 68
Base	Customs value plus II, IS, Siscomex fee, AFRMM, Cide-Combustíveis, antidumping, countervailing and safeguard duties, and other charges up to release	art. 69
FX	Converted at the exchange rate used for the Import Duty, with no later adjustment	art. 70
Rate	Same rate that applies to a domestic acquisition of the same good	art. 71
Taxpayer	The importer	art. 72, I
Payment	Due by delivery of goods submitted to despacho para consumo	art. 76

Two of these deserve emphasis.

Art. 69 excludes IPI, ICMS and ISS from the base (§2º) but includes the Import Duty, the Imposto Seletivo, the Siscomex fee, the AFRMM and trade-defence duties. If you are modelling landed cost, that is a materially different base from the old PIS/Cofins-Importação computation, and it is the line item most often mis-modelled in first-pass 2027 forecasts.

Art. 71 makes the import rate equal to the domestic rate. There is no separate import tariff schedule for CBS/IBS. Whatever rate your product attracts on a domestic sale in Brazil is the rate it attracts at the border, subject to the specific regimes.

Who is legally liable for CBS and IBS on an import?

This is where most commentary goes wrong, so we quote it.

LC 214/2025, art. 72 provides that the taxpayer of IBS and CBS on the import of material goods is:

“I — o importador, assim considerado qualquer pessoa ou entidade sem personalidade jurídica que promova a entrada de bens materiais de procedência estrangeira no território nacional; e II — o adquirente de mercadoria entrepostada.”

That is: the importer, understood as any person or entity without legal personality that promotes the entry of material goods of foreign origin into national territory; and the acquirer of warehoused goods.

Then comes the paragraph that changes the analysis for most foreign sellers:

“Parágrafo único. Na importação por conta e ordem de terceiro, quem promove a entrada de bens materiais de procedência estrangeira no território nacional é o adquirente dos bens no exterior.”

In an import por conta e ordem, the party that promotes the entry — and therefore the taxpayer — is the adquirente, the party that acquired the goods abroad. The trading company that registers the declaration in its own name is not the taxpayer. Under art. 74, I, it is a joint debtor (responsável solidário), as “the person who registers, in their own name, the import declaration for goods of foreign origin acquired abroad by another person.”

The consequence is blunt: hiring a Brazilian trading company under a conta e ordem arrangement does not relocate taxpayer status. It relocates the paperwork and adds a joint debtor. Whoever bought the goods abroad remains the contribuinte.

Por encomenda works differently. There, the trading imports with its own resources to resell to a pre-defined encomendante; the trading is the importer and therefore the taxpayer, and the encomendante predeterminado is the joint debtor under art. 74, II. Both structures are governed by IN RFB nº 1.861/2018 (amended by IN RFB nº 2.101/2022), and both remain entirely legitimate — but they allocate liability in opposite directions.

Art. 75 closes the loop: the taxable persons referred to in arts. 72 to 74 must register in order to comply with their IBS/CBS import obligations, in the terms of the regulation.

Why can’t a foreign company simply register and import?

Suppose your company decides it must be the importer of record — because you hold Brazilian inventory, control the brand at the border, run transfer-pricing structures, or sell direct-to-market. You then face a chain of requirements. Each link is individually reasonable. Together they are where foreign sellers get stuck.

Link 1 — Registration in the CNPJ

Decreto nº 12.955/2026, art. 105 requires natural persons, legal entities and entities without legal personality subject to CBS and IBS — as taxpayer or as responsible party — to register, before commencing activities and for each establishment, in a single-identification registry, by means of a CNPJ registration. Its §2º expressly prohibits creating, adopting or requiring any distinct identification, registry, inscription or registration for CBS purposes.

So there is no parallel non-resident registry to fall back on. The CNPJ is the door.

Note a nuance that is often stated too broadly: the general list of foreign-domiciled entities obliged to hold a CNPJ (IN RFB nº 2.119/2022, Anexo I, item XVI) covers things like Brazilian real estate, vehicles, vessels, aircraft, bank accounts, financial-market investments, non-market equity stakes, cross-border leasing, chartering, and imports of goods without foreign-exchange coverage for capital integration. Ordinary commercial importing is not on that list. The registration duty for an importing foreign entity therefore arises from the CBS/IBS rules themselves (LC 214/2025, art. 75; Decreto 12.955/2026, art. 105) and, in practice, from the habilitation requirement described next.

Registration is made through the FCPJ using evento 107 — inscrição de pessoa jurídica domiciliada no exterior — on the Redesim portal, generating a DBE, which is then submitted with the constitutive documents and the instrument appointing the Brazilian procurador. Foreign-issued documents must be legalised — apostilled under the Hague Convention or consularised — and accompanied by a sworn translation (IN RFB 2.119/2022, art. 55, §10, on the equivalent documentary standard).

Link 2 — Habilitation in RADAR/Siscomex

Nothing enters the formal line without a habilitation. IN RFB nº 1.984/2020, art. 4º defines declarantes de mercadorias as importers, exporters, adquirentes of goods imported on their account and order, and encomendantes. And art. 4º, §2º, III expressly extends the rules for private legal entities to “empresas domiciliadas no exterior.”

This is the fact that surprises people: a company domiciled abroad is expressly contemplated as a declarante de mercadorias. Being foreign is not, by itself, disqualifying.

Link 3 — A Brazilian person must hold the keys

Here the two instructions lock together.

IN RFB nº 2.119/2022, art. 6º, §1º:

“No caso de entidade domiciliada no exterior o representante no CNPJ deve ser seu procurador ou representante legalmente constituído e domiciliado no Brasil, com poderes para administrar os bens e direitos da entidade no País e representá-la perante a RFB.”

A foreign-domiciled entity’s CNPJ representative must be a procurador or legal representative constituted and domiciled in Brazil, with powers to administer the entity’s assets and rights in the country and to represent it before the RFB. Art. 6º, §2º requires their physical and virtual address to be provided at the moment of appointment.

IN RFB nº 1.984/2020, art. 5º, §2º:

“Considera-se como responsável primário pela prática de atos nos sistemas de comércio exterior o representante da entidade no CNPJ.”

The CNPJ representative is the primary responsible person for acts in the foreign-trade systems.

Read together: for a foreign-owned CNPJ, Brazilian law has already decided who operates your customs systems. It is your Brazil-domiciled procurador. That is not a workaround anyone invented — it is the design.

Link 4 — The digital-certificate layer

To sign and transmit, someone needs credentials the system recognises. That brings us to the part of the chain that changed most recently, and that is most often described incorrectly.

Can a foreigner obtain a Brazilian digital certificate?

The Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia da Informação (ITI), which governs ICP-Brasil, published Instrução Normativa ITI nº 36, de 29 de abril de 2026 (73 articles, in force 5 May 2026, art. 73), together with IN ITI nº 37/2026. It rewrote how a certificate applicant’s identity is confirmed, adding liveness detection, anti-deepfake and anti-injection controls, end-to-end encrypted videoconference, and a fully automated issuance channel.

Three points are commonly reported wrongly.

First: foreign identity documents are accepted. Art. 8º, I lists the admissible documents as the CIN or another identity record if Brazilian; the Carteira Nacional de Estrangeiro if a foreigner domiciled in Brazil; or a passport if a foreigner not domiciled in Brazil. There is no rule excluding foreign documents.

Second: the obstacle is the biometric match, not the document. Art. 10 requires that the applicant’s biometric verification be performed “por meio de batimento dos dados nas Bases Oficiais Nacionais.” Art. 5º lists exactly four such bases, and all four are Brazilian:

1. the CIN database (Carteira de Identidade Nacional);
2. the ICN database (Identificação Civil Nacional), maintained by the TSE;
3. the CNH database, maintained by Senatran;
4. the IPD de Identificação Civil, under art. 18 of Decreto nº 12.069/2024, maintained by the Secretaria de Governo Digital.

A person who has never held a Brazilian identity document has no record in any of them. Art. 8º, §2º additionally forbids using an identity document that makes facial matching impossible, and §4º requires denial of the certificate if unequivocal identification remains impossible after an additional document is requested.

Third: there is a route, but it is the slow one. Art. 9º, II requires a second, separate registration agent to perform a verification step for applicants not registered with the biometric service provider (PSBio) — expressly excluding issuance by AR Eletrônica or Módulo Eletrônico de AR. In other words, a first-time applicant with no Brazilian biometric record is not automatically refused, but the fully automated and remote-by-default channels are closed to them. Presencial issuance requires fingerprint and face; videoconference and automated channels require at least facial biometrics (art. 8º, IV).

Why the representative solves it cleanly

For a company certificate, the norm expressly contemplates a proxy. Art. 7º, I, “b” requires proof that the natural person presenting as legal representative of the entity actually holds that role, and admits:

“…procuração por instrumento público, com poderes específicos para atuar perante a ICP-Brasil, cuja certidão original ou segunda via tenha sido emitida dentro de 90 (noventa) dias anteriores à data da solicitação.”

A public-instrument power of attorney with specific powers to act before ICP-Brasil, whose certidão was issued within the 90 days preceding the request. Art. 11 then designates the legal representative — or that procurador — as the person responsible for the certificate and holder of the private key.

Contrast art. 7º, I, “a”, which governs individual certificates: proof that the applicant is genuinely the person in the documents and biometrics, “vedada qualquer espécie de procuração para tal fim” — any form of power of attorney is prohibited for that purpose.

The practical rule that falls out of those two provisions:

• Your Brazilian representative must obtain their own e-CPF personally, with their own biometrics. No proxy, ever.
• Your company’s e-CNPJ can then be issued to that representative as responsible person, on a public-instrument POA with ICP-Brasil-specific powers and a certidão less than 90 days old.

Two operational details worth putting in your calendar: art. 14, §3º bars issuance of a certificate to a legal entity whose CNPJ status is “Baixada” or “Nula”, and art. 13 dispenses with re-collecting the responsible person’s documents and biometrics when the request is signed with a valid A3-or-higher ICP-Brasil certificate held by that same person — which is why sequencing the e-CPF first genuinely saves time later.

You do not need to fly your CEO to São Paulo. You need a trustworthy, properly empowered representative in Brazil, and a POA drafted with the right specific powers and refreshed inside the 90-day window.

Do you even need an e-CNPJ?

Often, no.

Since Receita Federal’s 2024 change, a digital certificate is no longer required to use most e-CAC services or to grant an electronic power of attorney — the responsável legal can act using a gov.br account at the prata or ouro level, and the service formerly known as procuração eletrônica now appears as “Autorizações de Acesso.”

By RFB’s own guidance, three services still legally require a digital certificate for legal entities: DCTFWeb, EFD-Reinf, and PER/DCOMP Web.

So a Brazilian procurador holding their own e-CPF can act for the foreign CNPJ across most functions without ever issuing the foreign entity’s own e-CNPJ — reserving the e-CNPJ for those three services if and when they arise. For a company whose Brazilian footprint is import-only, that is often the entire compliance surface.

Which import structure should you use?

Path A — Sell to a Brazilian importer of record

Your Brazilian buyer imports in its own name and on its own account. It is the importador under art. 72, I, and therefore the CBS/IBS taxpayer. You have no CNPJ, no RADAR, no certificate, no Brazilian filings. Your exposure is commercial and contractual: pricing, Incoterms, and warranty.

Trade-off: you give up control of the border, of landed-cost optimisation, and of the customer relationship after clearance.

Path B — Importação por conta e ordem

A Brazilian trading company registers the declaration, but on the account and order of a designated adquirente.

Read art. 72, sole paragraph before choosing this. The taxpayer is the adquirente dos bens no exterior. If that adquirente is a Brazilian party, the structure genuinely keeps CBS/IBS off your books, with the trading as joint debtor under art. 74, I. If you were hoping to be the adquirente yourself while the trading absorbs the tax obligations, that is not what the law says.

The operation must also be real and correctly declared — the adquirente must be truthfully identified in the import declaration under IN RFB nº 1.861/2018. A sham interposition (interposição fraudulenta) risks perdimento, the forfeiture of the goods.

Path C — Importação por encomenda

The trading imports with its own resources to resell to a pre-defined encomendante. Here the trading is the importer and the taxpayer; the encomendante predeterminado is joint debtor under art. 74, II.

For a foreign seller, this is frequently the cleanest commercial answer: the trading buys from you abroad, imports on its own account, and resells. You are simply an exporter.

Path D — Foreign-owned CNPJ as importer of record

Your own company is the importer. This is legally available (IN RFB 1.984/2020, art. 4º, §2º, III) and is the right answer when you need brand control at the border, Brazilian inventory, or a direct distribution model.

The build is: CNPJ via evento 107 → appoint the Brazil-domiciled procurador (IN RFB 2.119/2022, art. 6º, §1º) → RADAR/Siscomex habilitation → representative obtains e-CPF → then either e-CNPJ on a public-instrument POA (IN ITI 36/2026, art. 7º, I, “b” and art. 11) or Autorizações de Acesso in e-CAC.

Path E — Incorporate a Brazilian subsidiary

The unglamorous answer that is frequently correct. A Brazilian Ltda. with local management is the importer, holds its own habilitation, generates input credits under the non-cumulative regime, and removes every foreign-identity friction described above. It costs more to build and carries ongoing corporate and tax compliance — see our guide on the Brazilian Ltda with a foreign parent and on appointing a resident administrator.

Comparison

Path	Who is the CBS/IBS taxpayer	Foreign CNPJ needed	Certificate chain	Control	Main risk
A — Sell to Brazilian importer	Brazilian buyer (art. 72, I)	No	None	Low	Loss of border and pricing control
B — Conta e ordem	The adquirente (art. 72, sole ¶); trading is joint debtor (art. 74, I)	Only if you are the adquirente	Only if you are the adquirente	Medium	Misreading who the adquirente is; interposição fraudulenta
C — Por encomenda	The trading (art. 72, I); encomendante is joint debtor (art. 74, II)	No	None	Medium	Encomendante joint liability; margin
D — Foreign CNPJ as importer	Your company (art. 72, I)	Yes	Solved via representative’s e-CPF → e-CNPJ or e-CAC authorisation	High	Setup time; dependence on the procurador
E — Brazilian subsidiary	The subsidiary (art. 72, I)	No (local CNPJ)	Ordinary domestic	Highest	Cost; full corporate and tax compliance

A note on split payment and câmbio withholding

The reform introduces split payment, segregating IBS/CBS at financial settlement. Where a foreign supplier or digital platform is not registered in the regular regime, LC 214/2025, art. 23, sole paragraph — mirrored in Decreto nº 12.955/2026, art. 21 — routes collection through the institution performing the foreign-exchange operation, at the reference rates.

Scope limit. This mechanism targets remittance-based flows and non-resident digital or remote sellers. It is not a substitute for the importer-of-record structure on containerised goods, where the tax must be settled around clearance under art. 76. Do not treat câmbio withholding as a way to avoid building the import structure.

And a note on the remessa internacional carve-out

There is a real registration duty for foreign suppliers of physical goods, but it is narrower than it is often described. LC 214/2025, art. 21, §2º obliges a supplier resident or domiciled abroad to register as taxpayer or as responsible party — and §4º then provides that, on imports of material goods, §2º applies only to remessas internacionais subject to the simplified taxation regime under art. 95, that is, low-value courier and postal parcels. Art. 95 makes the foreign supplier a joint debtor in those parcel flows, and Decreto nº 12.955/2026, art. 174 confirms that a joint RFB/CGIBS act is still pending to operationalise payment, split payment, collection timing and registration procedures for them.

Formal-line container imports are governed by arts. 63 to 76 and are not swept into that parcel regime. Read the two separately.

When do the new import rules actually bite?

2026 — test year. IBS is charged at a 0.1% state rate (art. 343) and CBS at 0.9% (art. 346). Under art. 348, §1º, collection of IBS and CBS is waived for taxable persons who comply with their accessory obligations, and amounts actually paid are offset against PIS/Cofins (art. 348, I) or refundable within 60 days (art. 348, II, “b”). The 2026 apuração is essentially informative.

1 August 2026 — the tolerance ended. The protection under Ato Conjunto RFB/CGIBS nº 1, de 22 de dezembro de 2025 expired; the accessory obligations already in force became fully enforceable with penalties, subject to the 60-day regularisation window assured by art. 348, §3º.

1 January 2027 — the date for importers. Under Ato Conjunto RFB/CGIBS nº 4, de 30 de julho de 2026, the DUIMP becomes systemically mandatory for IBS and CBS purposes. CBS reaches its full rate in 2027 and PIS/Cofins are extinguished. IBS runs at 0.05% state plus 0.05% municipal across 2027–2028 (art. 344).

2029–2032 — IBS ramp. IBS rises progressively (0.3% in 2029, 0.6% in 2030, 0.9% in 2031, 1.2% in 2032 on the transition scale) as ICMS and ISS wind down.

2033 — full regime. IBS and CBS stand alone.

The window is narrow and it is now. The rates are symbolic, the penalties are soft, and the systems are in test. That combination is a gift for anyone building structure in 2026 — and a problem for anyone who waits until a container is already on the water in February 2027.

How do you build the structure, step by step?

Stage 1 — Decide whether you should be the importer at all. If you do not need control at the border, Paths A, C or E remove the entire identity chain. Most foreign manufacturers we advise do not need to be importer of record; they think they do because of how the sales contract was drafted.

Stage 2 — If you must be the importer, build the CNPJ properly. Apostilled constitutive documents with sworn translation; evento 107 on Redesim; DBE plus supporting documents. Choose the procurador deliberately — this person becomes the primary responsible party for your customs systems and the identity anchor for your entire Brazilian digital presence. Draft the POA with express powers to administer assets and rights, to represent before the RFB, to act in comércio exterior and Siscomex, and — separately and explicitly — to act before ICP-Brasil.

Stage 3 — Habilitate in RADAR/Siscomex for the CNPJ, and credential the users who will act in the systems. A licensed despachante aduaneiro with active registration in the customs intervenient registry may be credentialed as representante in any case (IN RFB 1.984/2020, art. 15, §1º, IV).

Stage 4 — Solve credentials through the representative. Representative obtains their e-CPF in person. Then either issue the e-CNPJ with the 90-day-fresh public-instrument POA, or set up Autorizações de Acesso in e-CAC and reserve the e-CNPJ for DCTFWeb, EFD-Reinf or PER/DCOMP Web. Do not attempt to obtain a certificate directly in the name of a foreign individual with no Brazilian record through a remote automated channel — it will fail the biometric step.

Stage 5 — Model the landed cost against art. 69. Rebuild your 2027 cost sheet with the correct base: customs value plus II, IS, Siscomex fee, AFRMM, trade-defence duties, excluding IPI/ICMS/ISS. Apply the domestic rate for your product under art. 71. Confirm the IBS destination under art. 68, since the state and municipal components follow the place of delivery.

Stage 6 — Watch for the pending acts. The joint RFB/CGIBS act on remessas internacionais (Decreto art. 174) is outstanding, as is further guidance on end-to-end non-resident systems access. Any of these can simplify your structure.

What is still unsettled

Good counsel says what it does not know.

• The import operationalisation is still moving. Decreto 12.955/2026 and Resolução CGIBS 6/2026 date from April 2026; Ato Conjunto RFB/CGIBS nº 4 from 30 July 2026. Further acts are expressly contemplated. Treat any structure as provisional through the test year.
• There is no consolidated RFB position on end-to-end non-resident systems access. That a foreign-domiciled company may be a declarante is clear from IN RFB 1.984/2020. Exactly how each step is executed in practice for an entity with no Brazilian personnel is thinner ground, and practitioners differ.
• No simplified non-resident registration exists for formal goods imports. A simplified registry inspired by the MEI model has been discussed for CBS/IBS taxpayers generally, with reports pointing to late 2026. It is not law for containerised imports today. Do not build on it.
• The conta e ordem taxpayer rule will produce disputes. Art. 72’s sole paragraph reallocates taxpayer status in a way that cuts against a decade of commercial habit. Contracts written before 2025 frequently assume the trading is the taxpayer. Review them.
• Interposição fraudulenta remains the sharpest risk on Paths B and C. These structures are legitimate and common. They are also the ones customs scrutinises. Document the real economic relationship and declare it accurately.

Glossary

• CBS — Contribuição sobre Bens e Serviços: the federal half of the dual VAT, replacing PIS and Cofins.
• IBS — Imposto sobre Bens e Serviços: the state-and-municipal half, replacing ICMS and ISS, administered by the CGIBS.
• Importador — the taxpayer on goods imports: whoever promotes the entry of foreign goods into national territory (art. 72, I).
• Adquirente — in conta e ordem, the party that acquired the goods abroad; the taxpayer under art. 72, sole paragraph.
• Encomendante predeterminado — the pre-defined buyer in an encomenda import; joint debtor under art. 74, II.
• Despacho para consumo — the customs clearance procedure for goods imported on a definitive basis.
• DUIMP — Declaração Única de Importação, the single import declaration; systemically mandatory for IBS/CBS from 1 January 2027.
• RADAR/Siscomex — the habilitation that authorises a declarante to operate in the foreign-trade systems.
• e-CPF / e-CNPJ — ICP-Brasil digital certificates for a natural person and a legal entity.
• Bases Oficiais Nacionais — the four Brazilian identity databases used for biometric matching: CIN, ICN (TSE), CNH (Senatran), and the civil-identification IPD.
• Autorizações de Acesso — the current name of the electronic power of attorney inside e-CAC.
• Split payment — segregation of IBS/CBS at the moment of financial settlement.

Key takeaways

• CBS and IBS reach every import, regardless of habituality, purpose, or registration (art. 63).
• The importer is the taxpayer (art. 72, I) — but in conta e ordem that is the adquirente, not the trading company (art. 72, sole paragraph), with the trading as joint debtor (art. 74, I).
• A foreign-domiciled company may legally be the importer of record (IN RFB 1.984/2020, art. 4º, §2º, III), acting through a Brazil-domiciled procurador who is the primary responsible party for comex systems (art. 5º, §2º; IN RFB 2.119/2022, art. 6º, §1º).
• Foreign documents are accepted for a digital certificate; the obstacle is the biometric match against four Brazilian databases (IN ITI 36/2026, arts. 5º and 10), which closes the automated remote channels to a first-time foreign applicant.
• A public-instrument POA with specific ICP-Brasil powers, certidão under 90 days old, lets your representative hold the e-CNPJ (art. 7º, I, “b”; art. 11) — while an e-CPF can never be obtained by proxy (art. 7º, I, “a”).
• Most e-CAC work needs no certificate at all — gov.br prata/ouro suffices except for DCTFWeb, EFD-Reinf and PER/DCOMP Web.
• 2026 waives collection for compliant taxpayers (art. 348, §1º); 1 January 2027 is the operative date, when DUIMP becomes systemically mandatory for IBS/CBS.
• Rebuild your landed-cost model against art. 69 — the base is broader than the old PIS/Cofins-Importação base and excludes IPI, ICMS and ISS.

Related guides on this site

• Brazil’s CBS/IBS tax reform: what foreign companies must do
• IBS/CBS tax reform: rental income and landlords
• International trade, import and export in Brazil
• Brazilian Ltda with a foreign parent: tax and capital registration
• Resident administrator and power of attorney for a foreign company
• Corporate bank account for a foreign-owned company in Brazil
• Transfer pricing and intercompany agreements in Brazil
• CPF vs CNPJ: which do you need?

How can ZS Advogados help?

The hardest part of this problem is not the tax. It is deciding who should be the importer of record — and then building a structure in which that decision actually holds up at the border and in the declaration. Get that wrong and the tax analysis is academic, because the wrong party is registered as the taxpayer and the right party is a joint debtor.

We are a bilingual (English/Portuguese) firm working with foreign manufacturers, exporters and distributors on the Brazilian side of cross-border trade. On this issue specifically, we:

• Map liability before you ship — who is the importador under art. 72 for your actual contract structure, and whether conta e ordem, encomenda, a foreign-owned CNPJ or a Brazilian subsidiary fits your model.

• Build the foreign-owned CNPJ — evento 107, apostille and sworn translation, Redesim and DBE, under IN RFB 2.119/2022.

• Draft the procuração properly — with the specific powers the RFB, Siscomex and ICP-Brasil each require, including the 90-day certidão discipline that trips up first-time filings.

• Solve systems access — e-CPF and e-CNPJ sequencing, or Autorizações de Acesso in e-CAC, so the tax can actually be settled around clearance.

• Review contracts and Incoterms against the new taxpayer allocation, and rebuild landed cost against the art. 69 base.

• International law — cross-border trade structuring and foreign-entity representation in Brazil

• Tax law — CBS/IBS classification, import base and rate analysis, transition planning

• Business law — company formation, distribution agreements, and subsidiary structuring

Book a consultation to map your import structure before the 2027 cutover, not after.

Technical review by the ZS Advogados Associados team, including co-founding partner Karina Peres Silvério (OAB/SP 331.050) and founding partner Zachariah Zagol (OAB/SP 351.356). Contact: zac@zsassociados.com — +55 (18) 3908-1653 — Presidente Prudente, SP.

Sources and legal basis

• Emenda Constitucional nº 132/2023 — consumption tax reform
• Lei Complementar nº 214/2025 — IBS, CBS and Imposto Seletivo (arts. 21, 23, 63–76, 95, 343–348)
• Decreto nº 12.955/2026 — CBS regulation (arts. 21, 105, 172–178)
• Instrução Normativa ITI nº 36, de 29 de abril de 2026 — identity confirmation for ICP-Brasil certificates
• ITI — Instruções Normativas (official repository)
• Instrução Normativa RFB nº 2.119/2022 — CNPJ (art. 6º, §1º; Anexo I)
• Instrução Normativa RFB nº 1.984/2020 — Siscomex habilitation (arts. 4º, 5º, 15)
• Instrução Normativa RFB nº 1.861/2018 — importação por conta e ordem and por encomenda
• Receita Federal — orientações para pessoa jurídica domiciliada no exterior (evento 107, DBE)
• Receita Federal — orientações da Reforma Tributária para 2026
• CGIBS — Comitê Gestor do IBS
• Ato Conjunto RFB/CGIBS nº 4, de 30 de julho de 2026 — e-document schedule, DUIMP from 1 Jan 2027 (commentary)
• Portal Siscomex — legislação da Receita Federal

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This guide is for informational and educational purposes only, in line with Provimento No. 205/2021 of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB). It is not legal advice, an opinion, or an offer of services, does not refer to any specific case, and does not guarantee any result. It describes Brazilian law and practice. The IBS/CBS consumption-tax reform (EC 132/2023, LC 214/2025 as amended by LC 227/2026) is new and still being regulated: the import-specific joint acts of the RFB and the CGIBS referred to in Decreto nº 12.955/2026 were still pending when this was written, so dates, procedures and figures must be confirmed against the official text before being relied upon. Rules and provisions are cited as of August 2026; changes after that date are not reflected. Each situation requires individual analysis by a licensed attorney. Last updated August 2026.