Cessão de Direitos Hereditários: Selling a Brazilian Inheritance Share

Somewhere in the second year of the inventário, the calculation changes. Your share of your late father’s estate in Brazil — a third of an apartment in Curitiba, a third of a small farm, a third of whatever is left in the accounts — has stopped feeling like an asset and started feeling like a subscription: to lawyers’ updates, to sibling disagreements, to Portuguese-language documents that arrive faster than you can translate them. A cousin says he would buy your share outright. A sibling says that would be illegal. Another says you can just “renounce in his favour” and be done with it.

None of the three is quite right. Brazilian law does allow an heir to sell — or give away — their share of an estate before the partition. It calls the instrument a cessão de direitos hereditários, an assignment of hereditary rights, and surrounds it with rules that are short, strict, and frequently violated: a public deed or nothing; the undivided share or nothing; a right of first refusal for the other heirs; and a tax treatment that punishes the wrong label.

The pivot this guide turns on is the undivided share. From death until the partition, the estate is one indivisible thing and each heir owns a fraction of all of it — not the apartment, not the farm, but a third of everything. That fraction is what can be sold. Once you accept that, the rules make sense: notarised because it is a transfer of a real right; no picking assets because the assignor owns none; siblings can match the price because the law keeps strangers out of the family’s estate; and the tax follows substance, not the word the parties used.

This is educational content prepared by the ZS Advogados Associados team for heirs living outside Brazil who are considering an early exit from a Brazilian estate — and for the co-heirs and buyers on the other side of that deed. It complements our guides on inheriting Brazilian property as a non-resident heir, the inventário deadline and ITCMD late penalties, and capital gains for non-residents selling inherited property.

What exactly are you selling when you assign hereditary rights?

The answer is a fraction of a universality. Under article 1.784 of the Código Civil, the estate passes to the heirs at the moment of death (the saisine principle). Under article 1.791, the inheritance is transferred as a single whole, and until the partition the heirs’ rights over its ownership and possession are indivisible, governed by the rules on co-ownership. No heir owns the apartment; every heir owns an ideal fraction of the estate as a bloc.

Article 1.793 then provides that the right to an open succession, as well as the share available to a co-heir, may be the object of an assignment by public deed. The object of the deed is therefore:

• the heir’s quinhão — their fractional, undivided share of the whole estate, including assets not yet discovered and liabilities not yet quantified; and
• not any specific asset. §2 declares ineffective a co-heir’s assignment of their hereditary right over any asset of the estate considered singly; §3 declares ineffective any disposal of a specific estate asset by a co-heir without prior authorisation from the succession judge while the indivisibility lasts. (§1 adds that rights arising later from substitution or accretion are presumed not to be covered by an earlier assignment — a point worth naming in the deed.)

The assignee steps into the assignor’s shoes as a party to the inventário — with the same rights to information, participation, and the eventual allocation, and the same exposure to the estate’s debts up to the value of the share (CC art. 1.792). What the assignee eventually receives is whatever the partition allocates to that share: perhaps the apartment, perhaps cash, perhaps a fraction of each asset. That uncertainty is the core of the price.

One more boundary: the assignment is possible only after the death. Article 426 of the Código Civil voids any contract over the inheritance of a living person (the pacta corvina). An heir cannot sell an expected inheritance; the deed is signed after the succession has opened, whether or not the inventário has been formally started. The article’s whole text is one line: “Não pode ser objeto de contrato a herança de pessoa viva.”

Legal basis: transmission at death is art. 1.784 do Código Civil (Lei nº 10.406/2002); indivisibility of the estate until partition is art. 1.791; the assignment of hereditary rights by public deed is art. 1.793, with the ineffectiveness of asset-specific assignments in §§2 and 3; liability of heirs limited to the share is art. 1.792; the prohibition on contracts over a living person’s estate is art. 426.

Why must the deed be public — and what happens if it is not?

Because the law says so, and because a hereditary share is treated as immovable property for these purposes. Article 80, II of the Código Civil classifies the right to an open succession as an immovable by legal determination, and article 108 requires a public deed for transactions over real rights in immovables above a modest threshold. Article 1.793 removes any doubt by naming the public deed expressly.

The consequence of a private instrument — a signed contract, an email exchange, a receipt for the price — is not a technicality. Because the assignment concerns a right the Code classifies as immovable, the public deed is treated as a requirement of form, and Brazilian law voids a legal transaction that does not observe the form the law prescribes (CC art. 166, IV). In practice a private instrument does not transfer the share; at most it may ground a claim between the parties for the return of money paid. Courts do not admit the private-instrument assignee as a party to the estate, and registries do not record a partition in their favour.

The deed is signed at a cartório de notas — any notary in Brazil, not necessarily in the state of the assets — by the assignor and the assignee, in person or through attorneys-in-fact. For an heir abroad this means a power of attorney with express powers to ceder direitos hereditários, stating whether the assignment is onerous or gratuitous, to whom, and for what price or without price, executed at a Brazilian consulate if the heir holds Brazilian nationality (LINDB, Decreto-Lei nº 4.657/1942, art. 18), or, if the heir is a foreign national, before a local notary with an apostille and sworn translation. A generic POA “for the inventário” typically does not suffice; notaries read the powers narrowly.

After signature, the deed is filed in the inventário (judicial or notarial) so that the assignee is admitted in the assignor’s place; where the estate is at a notary, the assignment can be incorporated into the inventário deed itself.

Legal basis: hereditary rights as immovables by legal determination, art. 80, II, do Código Civil; public-deed requirement for real rights in immovables, art. 108; the express public-deed requirement for assignments of hereditary rights, art. 1.793 caput.

Speak to counsel — the power of attorney is where these deals fail. A POA that does not name the assignment, the assignee, and the consideration will be refused by the notary, and redoing it across an ocean is the classic three-month delay. Have counsel draft the POA text before you book the consulate.

Do the other heirs have a right of first refusal?

Yes, when the assignee is an outsider to the succession — and the right has teeth.

Article 1.794 of the Código Civil provides that a co-heir may not assign their share to a person who is a stranger to the succession if another co-heir wishes to take it on the same terms (tanto por tanto). Article 1.795 gives a co-heir who was not offered the share the right, within 180 days of the transfer, to deposit the price and claim the share for themselves; if several co-heirs exercise the right, they take the share in proportion to their own quotas. The 180 days run “após a transmissão” — from the transfer, not from the co-heir’s knowledge of it.

Practical consequences:

• The assignor’s counsel notifies every co-heir in writing — with the price, the terms, and a reasonable period to respond — before the deed is signed, and keeps proof of delivery. Notaries increasingly ask for evidence of this notice, or for the co-heirs’ express waiver, in the deed.
• The buyer bears the risk. A co-heir who was not notified can, within 180 days, deposit the price in court and take the share; the buyer recovers the money, not the inheritance.
• The rule does not apply between co-heirs. An assignment from one sibling to another needs no notice to the third.
• Spouses of heirs ordinarily need to consent. A married person may not dispose of immovables without the other spouse’s authorisation except under the regime of separação absoluta (CC art. 1.647, I), and the right to an open succession is classified as immovable for legal purposes (CC art. 80, II) — which is why notaries ask for the spouse’s outorga on the deed.

The rule reflects a policy choice — keep estates inside the family. For an heir selling to a sibling it is a non-issue; for one selling to an investor, it is the first thing to clear.

Legal basis: the co-heirs’ right of first refusal against assignments to strangers is art. 1.794 do Código Civil; the 180-day right to deposit the price and take the share is art. 1.795; spousal consent for disposals of immovables by married persons is art. 1.647, I.

Renounce, assign, or wait — which instrument does what?

Families use these words interchangeably. The law does not, and the tax bill depends on the distinction.

Instrument	What it is	Form	Who benefits	Tax events
Renúncia abdicativa (pure renunciation)	Unilateral, unconditional refusal of the inheritance, as if never called (CC arts. 1.806, 1.808)	Public deed or statement in the court record	The other heirs of the same class, by accretion — not a chosen person	The renouncing heir’s share is taxed once, in the hands of those who receive it by accretion
Renúncia translativa (“renunciation in favour of X”)	Legally an acceptance followed by an assignment to X	Public deed	The chosen person	Treated as an assignment: ITCMD on the inheritance plus ITCMD (if gratuitous) or ITBI + capital gains (if onerous) on the transfer
Cessão gratuita (gift of the share)	Assignment without consideration (CC art. 1.793)	Public deed	The assignee	ITCMD on the inheritance (assignor) plus ITCMD as a donation (assignee)
Cessão onerosa (sale of the share)	Assignment for a price (CC art. 1.793)	Public deed	The assignee	ITCMD on the inheritance (assignor) plus ITBI on the real-estate component and capital-gains tax on the assignor’s gain
Wait for the partition	No transfer; receive the allocated assets	Formal de partilha / notarial deed	The heir	ITCMD on the inheritance; later sale of allocated assets taxed on its own terms

The renunciation trap deserves emphasis. “I renounce in favour of my mother” is, in Brazilian law, an acceptance followed by an assignment — with the double tax that follows. “I renounce”, unqualified, is a step out: the share accrues to the co-heirs of the same class by operation of law, one tax event. The two coincide only when the accretion happens to reach the intended person; often it does not (a renouncing child’s share accrues to the other children, not to the surviving spouse). Renunciation cannot be partial, conditional, or for a term (CC art. 1.808), and is irrevocable (art. 1.812).

Legal basis: renunciation by public deed or court record, art. 1.806 do Código Civil; no partial, conditional, or term renunciation, art. 1.808; irrevocability, art. 1.812; accretion of the renounced share to co-heirs of the same class, art. 1.810; the characterisation of “renunciation in favour of” as acceptance plus assignment follows from art. 1.805, §2 and settled case law.

Speak to counsel — the label is not the substance. State tax authorities and the courts classify the act by what it does, not by what the deed calls it. Have counsel choose the instrument for the outcome you want and price the tax before signing.

What taxes apply to a cessão de direitos hereditários?

Three layers, in order.

Layer 1 — ITCMD on the original inheritance. The death itself is the taxable event for the state inheritance tax, regardless of any later assignment. The assigning heir is the taxpayer for their share; in practice the estate settles the tax before the partition is homologated (judicial) or before the deed (notarial), and the assignee usually bears it economically as part of the price. Late-opening surcharges and payment deadlines follow the state’s rules — see our state-by-state guide. The ITCMD calculator sizes this layer.

Layer 2 — tax on the assignment, by its nature.

• Gratuitous assignment = a donation. The assignee pays ITCMD a second time, at the state’s doação rate, on the value of the share. Successive gifts between the same donor and donee are now aggregated nationally: LC 227/2026, art. 155 requires every earlier transfer within the period set by state law to be added back to the base and the tax recalculated at each new gift, with previously paid ITCMD deducted — so a share given in instalments does not escape the progressive brackets.
• Onerous assignment = a sale. No second ITCMD. Instead, the municipality where the real property sits charges ITBI (Imposto sobre a Transmissão de Bens Imóveis) on the real-estate component of the share — the Constitution, art. 156, II, expressly includes the “cessão de direitos à sua aquisição” in the ITBI base — at rates each municipality fixes for itself, commonly in the low single digits. Whether the ITBI is collected at the deed or only at the partition varies by municipality, and so does the base the municipality will accept — both must be checked with the city where the property sits before the deed is booked.

Layer 3 — federal income tax on the assignor’s capital gain (onerous assignments only). The assignor’s gain is the price received minus the cost basis of the share. The basis is normally the value at which the assets were carried in the deceased’s last tax return, or the market value if the estate elected to transfer at market value (Lei 9.532/1997, art. 23 — the election our non-resident heir guide discusses). The rates are the progressive brackets of Lei 8.981/1995, art. 21, as rewritten by Lei 13.259/2016: 15% on the portion of the gain up to R$5 million, 17.5% up to R$10 million, 20% up to R$30 million, and 22.5% above that. Those brackets reach non-residents too: Lei 9.249/1995, art. 18 provides that a capital gain earned by a person resident or domiciled abroad is computed and taxed under the rules applicable to residents in Brazil, so the starting rate is 15% and the higher brackets are not excluded by the assignor’s residence. What differs for a non-resident is the collection mechanics — Receita Federal rules place the duty to withhold and pay on the Brazilian acquirer, or on the non-resident’s attorney-in-fact — and the exemptions: the residents’ small-sale threshold and the 180-day reinvestment relief for residential property are written for residents and should not be assumed to shelter a non-resident assignor. Counsel and an accountant should compute this layer before the price is agreed, not after.

A worked illustration (illustrative, August 2026; FX ~R$5.4/US$1):

Item	Amount
Estate: apartment in São Paulo, R$1,500,000; accounts, R$150,000; three heirs	Share = 1/3 ≈ R$550,000
Layer 1 — ITCMD (SP, 4%) on the share	≈ R$22,000 (paid by the estate before partition)
Onerous assignment to a co-heir at a 15% uncertainty discount	Price ≈ R$467,500
Layer 2 — ITBI (assumed 3%, municipal) on the real-estate component of the share (≈ R$500,000 × 1/3 basis adjusted)	≈ R$14,000 (payable by the assignee, timing per municipality)
Layer 3 — assignor’s capital gain: price R$467,500 minus basis (share at declared value, assume R$300,000)	Gain ≈ R$167,500 → first bracket 15% ≈ R$25,000 (the gain is under R$5 million, so the 17.5%/20%/22.5% brackets are not reached; withheld and remitted by the acquirer or the acquirer’s procurador, RIR/2018 art. 745, §3)

The assignor’s net is the price minus capital-gains tax; the assignee’s cost is the price plus ITBI plus, economically, the Layer 1 ITCMD they will fund.

Legal basis: ITCMD on transmissions causa mortis and donations is art. 155, I, of the Constitution and each state’s statute (São Paulo, Lei nº 10.705/2000); ITBI on onerous transfers of immovables and assignments of rights to acquire them is art. 156, II, of the Constitution and each municipality’s law; capital-gains rates are art. 21 da Lei nº 8.981/1995, na redação da Lei nº 13.259/2016; the estate’s valuation election is art. 23 da Lei nº 9.532/1997; and art. 18 da Lei nº 9.249/1995 subjects a non-resident’s capital gain to the rules applicable to residents — so the 15/17.5/20/22.5% brackets, not a flat 15%. The collection mechanics are in art. 745 do RIR/2018 (Decreto nº 9.580/2018): §3 puts the withholding and payment on the acquirer, or on the acquirer’s procurador where the acquirer is resident abroad, and §4 sets 25% where the seller is resident or domiciled in a favoured-taxation jurisdiction.

Speak to counsel — three authorities, three sets of rules. State (ITCMD), municipal (ITBI), and federal (income tax) treatments of the same deed differ by state, city, and residence status, and are changing with LC 227/2026. Model the full stack for the specific estate before agreeing a price.

How is the price set — and why is there always a discount?

A hereditary share is not a slice of a known cake; it is a slice of a cake still in the oven. The buyer acquires:

• the estate’s timeline — the assignee waits for the partition, which may be months (consensual notarial) or years (contested judicial);
• the estate’s liabilities — debts of the deceased, condominium arrears, unpaid taxes, and the ITCMD itself, up to the value of the share (CC art. 1.792);
• the estate’s disputes — a will contest, a paternity claim by an unknown child, a dispute over the valuation election;
• the allocation risk — the partition may deliver the apartment, or cash, or a fraction of each;
• the sale cost of whatever is delivered — brokerage, ITBI on a later resale, capital gains on their own resale.

Every one of these is priced as a discount to the notional net value of the share — modest in consensual estates with one or two assets, large in contested estates with illiquid assets such as an unregularised rural property or a stake in a family company. An heir who can tolerate the timeline usually receives more by waiting for the partition and selling the allocated asset in the ordinary market; an heir who wants a clean exit — no further POAs, no more Portuguese documents, no exposure to sibling litigation — pays for it in the discount, and often considers it fair.

Two structuring points recur. Instalments: a deferred price is permitted but should be secured — unsecured, it is a loan to a relative dressed as a sale. Assignment to a co-heir as a partition shortcut: where one sibling keeps the apartment and another leaves with cash, the cleaner route is often a partition with a compensating payment (torna), with the tax computed once. Counsel should compare the two.

Speak to counsel — model both routes before signing. An assignment now and a partition-plus-sale later can produce very different nets for the same heir; the difference is the discount, the tax stack, and the heir’s tax position at home (for which foreign tax advice is required; ZS advises Brazilian law only).

Can an heir abroad do this without travelling?

Yes, and it is one of the instrument’s main uses. The sequence:

1. Counsel maps the estate — assets, liabilities, stage of the inventário, co-heirs, any will — and confirms that the share is assignable (the succession is open; the assignor has not renounced; no court restriction).
2. The buyer is identified and the price agreed, with the right of first refusal cleared where the buyer is an outsider (written notice to co-heirs, or their waiver).
3. The heir abroad signs a power of attorney — at a Brazilian consulate if they hold Brazilian nationality (LINDB, art. 18), or, if they are a foreign national, before a local notary with apostille and sworn translation — with express powers to assign hereditary rights to the named assignee for the stated consideration, to receive the price, and, if wanted, to arrange the remittance abroad. A CPF is required for the assignor.
4. The deed is signed at a cartório de notas in Brazil by the procurador and the assignee; the notary collects the ITBI or the exemption evidence as the municipality requires and checks the ITCMD status of the estate.
5. The capital-gains tax is computed and paid — for a non-resident assignor, withheld and paid by the buyer or the procurador at the deed.
6. The deed is filed in the inventário; the assignee replaces the assignor as a party.
7. The proceeds are remitted through the regular FX channels, with the deed and the tax receipts as supporting documents; the procurador’s account or the assignor’s Brazilian account serves as the source.

Nothing in this sequence requires the assignor’s presence in Brazil — only the right documents in the right order, the POA text above all.

Legal basis: representation by attorney-in-fact under arts. 653–691 do Código Civil; the Hague Apostille Convention, promulgated in Brazil by Decreto nº 8.660/2016 and in force for Brazil since 14 August 2016; CPF rules consolidated in Instrução Normativa RFB nº 2.172/2024, as subsequently amended; foreign-exchange remittances under Banco Central rules for non-residents.

What can go wrong — and how the deed is unwound

A short catalogue of failures counsel see repeatedly:

• The private-instrument sale. Contract and bank transfer, no deed: the buyer cannot enter the inventário and is left with a money claim against a relative.
• The asset-specific assignment. “My rights in the apartment at Rua X” — ineffective under art. 1.793, §2; the deed must be redone as an assignment of the whole share.
• The un-notified sibling. A co-heir deposits the price within 180 days and takes the share (art. 1.795).
• The unpaid ITCMD. The assignee assumed the estate had paid; the partition cannot be homologated until it does.
• The undisclosed will. It surfaces after the deed and reduces the share; the assignee received what the assignor had, which turned out to be less.
• The married assignor without spousal consent. Depending on the property regime, the deed is voidable at the spouse’s instance.

Unwinding is by rescission deed where the parties agree, or by an action where they do not — slow, and a reason to get the deed right.

Hypothetical illustration — not a real client.

Imagine a woman in Dublin, a Brazilian citizen by descent, who is one of three children of a Brazilian who died in Curitiba leaving an apartment and a small rural property. The inventário has been open in court for two years; one brother lives in the apartment, the other wants to sell the farm, and they do not agree. She wants out. The brother in the apartment offers to buy her share.

Her Brazilian counsel confirms the succession is open and her share is assignable; because the buyer is a co-heir, no first-refusal notice is needed, though the third sibling is informed as a courtesy. Counsel drafts the consular POA text — assignment of her hereditary share to the named brother, for a stated price payable at the deed, with powers to receive the price and remit it — and she signs it at the Brazilian consulate in Dublin. The deed is signed at a Curitiba notary; the municipality’s ITBI on the real-estate component is paid by the brother; the capital-gains tax on her gain is computed on the basis of the values in the father’s last tax return and withheld by her procurador; the deed is filed in the inventário, and the brother now holds two-thirds. She never travels, and the net price reaches her Irish account within weeks of the deed.

Every distinguishing detail here is invented. Real situations turn on their own facts, dates, and documents, and require individual analysis. Nothing in this example predicts any outcome.

What are the most common mistakes?

• Signing a private contract instead of a public deed. Ineffective to transfer the share (CC art. 1.793).
• Assigning a specific asset. Only the undivided share can be assigned (art. 1.793, §2).
• Skipping the co-heirs’ first-refusal notice when selling to an outsider (arts. 1.794–1.795).
• “Renouncing in favour of” someone and expecting a single tax event.
• Ignoring the three-layer tax stack — ITCMD on the inheritance, ITBI or donation ITCMD on the transfer, capital gains for the assignor.
• A power of attorney that does not name the assignment. Notaries read powers narrowly.
• Pricing without the discount in view — or accepting a discount without modelling the wait-and-sell alternative.
• Selling before the estate’s ITCMD is settled and assuming it is someone else’s problem.

The cessão at a glance

Question	Answer	Where
What can be assigned	The heir’s undivided share of the whole estate, after the death	CC arts. 1.791, 1.793; art. 426
What cannot	A specific asset; a share of a living person’s estate	CC art. 1.793, §§2–3; art. 426
Form	Public deed at a notary — no exceptions	CC art. 1.793; arts. 80, II and 108
Co-heirs’ rights	First refusal on equal terms when the assignee is an outsider; 180 days to deposit the price	CC arts. 1.794–1.795
Assignee’s position	Steps into the inventário as a party; liable for estate debts up to the share	CC art. 1.792
Renunciation vs assignment	Pure renunciation accrues to co-heirs, one tax event; “in favour of X” is an assignment	CC arts. 1.805–1.812
Tax — inheritance	ITCMD, state, on the original transmission	CF art. 155, I; state statutes
Tax — transfer	Gift: second ITCMD; sale: municipal ITBI on real-estate component	CF arts. 155, I and 156, II
Tax — assignor	Capital gains on price minus basis; same 15/17.5/20/22.5% brackets for non-residents; acquirer (or acquirer’s procurador) withholds; 25% if the seller is in a tax haven	Lei 9.249/1995, art. 18; Lei 13.259/2016; RIR/2018, art. 745, §§3–4; Lei 9.532/1997, art. 23
Heir abroad	POA with express assignment powers; CPF; no travel	Hague Apostille; IN RFB 2.172/2024

Key terms

• Cessão de direitos hereditários — assignment of an heir’s share in an open succession.
• Cedente / cessionário — assignor / assignee.
• Quinhão — the heir’s share.
• Saisine — the principle that the estate passes to the heirs at the moment of death (CC art. 1.784).
• Universalidade / indivisibilidade — the estate as one indivisible whole until the partition (CC art. 1.791).
• Tanto por tanto — “on the same terms”: the co-heirs’ right to match an outsider’s offer.
• Renúncia abdicativa / translativa — pure renunciation / renunciation in favour of a named person (treated as assignment).
• Torna — the compensating cash payment in a partition that allocates unequal assets.
• ITBI — the municipal tax on onerous transfers of real property and of rights to acquire it.

Key takeaways

• An heir may sell or give away their share of a Brazilian estate before the partition, by public deed only (CC art. 1.793); a private contract transfers nothing.
• Only the undivided share can be assigned — never a specific asset — and only after the death.
• Co-heirs have a right of first refusal against sales to outsiders, enforceable for 180 days by depositing the price (arts. 1.794–1.795).
• “Renouncing in favour of” someone is an assignment in law and in tax; a pure renunciation is the only single-tax exit.
• Three tax layers: ITCMD on the inheritance; a second ITCMD (gift) or ITBI (sale) on the transfer; capital gains for the assignor — the same 15%–22.5% progressive brackets apply to non-residents (Lei 9.249/1995, art. 18), with the tax withheld at the deed.
• The price carries a discount for timeline, liabilities, disputes, and allocation risk; waiting usually yields more, exiting now yields certainty.
• An heir abroad completes the whole sequence through a power of attorney that names the assignment, the assignee, and the consideration.
• Compare the assignment with a partition-plus-torna where the counterpart is a co-heir.

Related guides on this site

• Inheriting property in Brazil as a non-resident heir
• Inventário deadline and ITCMD late penalties, state by state
• Alvará judicial: releasing bank balances and small estates without a full inventário
• Capital gains for non-residents selling inherited Brazilian property
• Brazil’s ITCMD inheritance tax and the 2027 reform
• How estates are divided among heirs in Brazil
• International inheritance in Brazil

How ZS Advogados can help

An assignment of hereditary rights is a small deed with a long shadow: the form must be right or nothing transfers; the object must be the share or the deed is ineffective; the co-heirs must be cleared or the buyer loses the share; and the tax must be modelled across three authorities or the price is wrong.

Our team advises assignors and assignees on Brazilian estates: mapping the estate and the share, clearing the right of first refusal, drafting the consular POA text, structuring the price and the tax stack, executing the deed, filing it in the inventário, and remitting the proceeds. Where a partition with a compensating payment serves the family better, we say so and structure that instead. Our probate for heirs abroad page describes the remote engagement; the ITCMD calculator sizes the first tax layer.

• Family law — the assignment, the co-heirs’ rights, and the inventário in which the deed is filed
• International law — consular powers of attorney, apostilles, and the remittance of proceeds
• Tax law — ITCMD, ITBI, and the non-resident capital-gains computation and withholding

Book a consultation to have the share, the buyer, the tax stack, and the alternative of waiting modelled before any deed is signed.

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: contato@zsassociados.com — +55 (18) 3908-1653 — Presidente Prudente, SP.

Sources and legal basis

• LINDB — Decreto-Lei nº 4.657/1942 (art. 18: atos notariais e de registro civil praticados por autoridades consulares brasileiras para brasileiros no exterior)
• Lei nº 10.406/2002 — Código Civil (arts. 80, 108, 426, 1.647, 1.784, 1.791–1.795, 1.805–1.812) (Planalto)
• Lei nº 13.105/2015 — Código de Processo Civil (arts. 610–673) (Planalto)
• Constituição Federal — arts. 155, I (ITCMD) and 156, II (ITBI) (Planalto)
• Lei Complementar nº 227, de 13 de janeiro de 2026 — ITCMD general rules; arts. 155 (successive donations), 156 (progressive rates), 158–159 (which state taxes) (Planalto)
• Lei estadual nº 10.705/2000 — ITCMD de São Paulo (ALESP)
• Lei nº 13.259/2016 — progressive capital-gains rates (amending art. 21 da Lei nº 8.981/1995) (Planalto)
• Lei nº 9.249/1995 — art. 18: a non-resident’s capital gain is taxed under the rules applicable to residents (Planalto)
• Decreto nº 9.580/2018 (RIR/2018) — art. 745: non-resident capital gains; §3 withholding by the acquirer or the acquirer’s procurador; §4 the 25% tax-haven rate (Planalto)
• Lei nº 9.532/1997 — art. 23, estate transfer at declared or market value (Planalto)
• Lei nº 11.441/2007 — extrajudicial inventário (Planalto)
• Resolução CNJ nº 35/2007 — notarial inventário rules (CNJ)
• Decreto nº 8.660/2016 — Hague Apostille Convention in Brazil (Planalto)
• Receita Federal — Meu CPF (registration, including for non-residents) (gov.br)
• Receita Federal — Ganho de capital (tax on capital gains, including non-residents) (gov.br)

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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 or tax 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; references to the assignor’s tax position in another country are factual context only and require advice from a professional qualified in that country. ITCMD, ITBI, and capital-gains rules vary by state, municipality, and residence status and are in transition under EC 132/2023 and LC 227/2026 — figures cited here must be confirmed against the rules in force at the relevant date. 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.