Inventário Cost Estimator: What a Brazilian Estate Costs, Line by Line

Inventário Cost Estimator: What a Brazilian Estate Costs, Line by Line

Families abroad usually ask two questions about a Brazilian estate: how long and how much. The first is answered in our inventário guide and the power-of-attorney route. This page answers the second, in the only way that is reliable — by listing each official cost item, saying where its figure comes from, and showing how the items combine for a sample estate.

Two things are deliberately excluded. Attorney fees are set in a written proposal for each estate and are not a component of the official costs; the structure of that proposal is described near the end. And generic percentages (“expect 5–7% of the estate”) are avoided, because they mislead: the official items scale differently, some are flat, some are capped, and the largest one — ITCMD — varies by state.

Use this page together with the ITCMD calculator for the tax line and the ITCMD rates-by-state table for the current rates.

“The honest cost estimate for an inventário is a list, not a percentage. Once the family sees the list, the tax line explains itself, and everything else is a table lookup that any Brazilian attorney can do in an afternoon.” — Zachariah Zagol, Founding Partner, OAB/SP 351.356

The Cost Components at a Glance

The sections below take each in turn.

1. ITCMD — The State Inheritance Tax

What it is. Imposto sobre Transmissão Causa Mortis e Doação, the tax each state levies on transfers at death and on gifts (Constitution, art. 155, I). The Senate fixes the ceiling — 8% under Resolution 9/1992 — and each state sets its own rate structure below it.

How it is calculated. On the value of the assets transmitted to the heirs. Real estate is taxed by the state where the property is located; movable assets by the state where the inventário is processed (Constitution, art. 155, §1). Valuation rules vary: several states use their own reference value for real estate, others accept the declared value subject to review, and the ITCMD reform under LC 227/2026 moves states towards market value and progressive rates. Because each state legislates its own adaptation on its own timetable, the rate and the valuation rule that apply to a given estate depend on the state and on the date of death — which is why the estimate always starts by naming both.

Rates. Some states charge a single rate; others charge progressive brackets. The current table for every state is maintained on our rates-by-state page, and the ITCMD calculator applies it to your figures. São Paulo, used in the example below, charges a flat 4%.

Exemptions and reductions. Most states exempt small estates or specific assets (a single residential property up to a value, for instance) and some offer a discount for early payment. Late opening attracts a penalty in several states, and it is charged on the tax, so it scales with the estate. São Paulo’s ITCMD statute graduates it: where the inventário or arrolamento is not applied for within 60 days of the opening of the succession the tax is increased by 10 per cent, and where the delay exceeds 180 days the increase is 20 per cent (Lei estadual 10.705/2000, art. 21, I). Interest on the tax runs separately.

Where the figure comes from. The ITCMD declaration filed with the state tax authority (SEFAZ) — in São Paulo, through the electronic declaration system — returns the amount and the payment slip.

2. Court Fees — Judicial Track Only

What they are. The fees charged by the state judiciary for processing the case (custas, taxa judiciária), set by each state’s court-fee statute.

How they scale. This is the item most often over-estimated, because the general rule and the inventário rule are different. São Paulo’s court-fee statute charges 1.5% of the value of the case on filing in the ordinary case, subject to a floor of 5 and a ceiling of 3,000 UFESPs (Lei estadual 11.608/2003, art. 4, I and §1). But inventários, arrolamentos and other cases involving a partition of assets are taken out of that percentage rule and charged instead on a fixed bracket table set by §7 of the same article, on the total value of the monte mor including the surviving spouse’s meação:

The UFESP is a state fiscal unit restated annually, so the reais figure changes each year while the bracket structure does not. The top bracket is the practical point: in São Paulo the judicial fee on a very large estate is the same as on one of five million reais, which is why the ITCMD line — not the court line — is what drives cost as the estate grows. Other states use their own statutes, some percentage-based, some bracketed; the estimate is built on the statute of the state where the case will actually run.

When paid. Generally at filing, with a further fee at the end of the proceeding in some states. Where the estate has no liquid funds, heirs advance the fee; a legally aided heir may be exempted.

Where the figure comes from. The court’s fee calculator or the clerk’s office, on the estate value declared in the opening petition.

3. Notary Emoluments — Extrajudicial Track Only

What they are. The fees the tabelião de notas charges to draw up the public deed of inventário and partition (escritura pública de inventário e partilha), set by each state’s emoluments table (in São Paulo, under the state emoluments statute).

How they scale. By value bracket of the deed, usually the total value of the assets partitioned. Each state publishes an annual table with the bracket amounts; the top bracket is capped, so again the fee for a large estate is not proportional.

When paid. At the signing of the deed.

Where the figure comes from. The state’s published table for the year, applied to the estate value; any notary will quote it in advance.

4. Registration Fees — Every Estate

What they are. Once the partition exists — as a notarial deed or as the court’s formal de partilha — each asset must be registered in the heirs’ names. Property registries charge a registration fee per matrícula, by value bracket, under the same state emoluments table; DETRAN charges a transfer fee per vehicle; the Junta Comercial charges a filing fee for the amendment to the company’s articles; banks generally charge nothing to release balances.

How they scale. Per asset. An estate with three apartments pays three registration fees; one with a single bank account pays none at the registry.

Where the figure comes from. The registry’s table for the year, by value bracket, plus small fixed items (certificates of the new registration, for instance).

5. Certificates

Every inventário consumes certificates: the CENSEC will search, updated matrícula certificates, negative certificates of federal, state and municipal tax debt in the deceased’s name, court-record certificates, protest certificates, and civil-registry certificates. Each is a small fixed amount set by the issuing body; the total depends on how many properties and jurisdictions are involved. The asset-search guide lists the certificates by purpose.

6. Apostilles — Documents Issued Abroad

Foreign death, birth and marriage certificates, and a foreign notarial power of attorney, must be apostilled in the issuing country before they can be used in Brazil (Hague Convention of 1961; in force for Brazil since 2016 under Decreto 8.660/2016). The fee is set by the issuing authority — a US Secretary of State, the UK’s FCDO, a ministry or court elsewhere — and charged per document. Countries outside the Convention use consular legalisation instead, at the Brazilian consulate’s fee. Our apostille guide explains who issues them where.

7. Sworn Translations

Every foreign-language document entering a Brazilian proceeding must be translated by a tradutor e intérprete público (sworn translator). Translating a document for presentation to a Brazilian public body, or to a notarial or titles registry, is that profession’s exclusive activity (Lei 14.195/2021, art. 26, I), and no translation has public faith unless it is theirs (art. 27, §1). Two features of the current regime matter for cost and logistics: a translator qualified under the statute may act in any Brazilian state while holding a single registration at the commercial registry of their own domicile (art. 24), and translations may be produced electronically (art. 33) — so the family is not tied to a translator in the city where the estate will run. The statute does not fix prices; the translator quotes, generally per page or per document, and the quote should be obtained before the file is sent. The volume is what drives this line: a family with several heirs, each with a birth certificate, a marriage certificate and a POA, generates more pages than a single heir with a consular POA. The sworn vs regular translation comparison explains why only sworn translations are accepted.

8. Registration of a Foreign POA

A power of attorney signed before a foreign notary, once apostilled and translated, is registered at a Brazilian Registro de Títulos e Documentos so that it produces effects before Brazilian authorities (Lei 6.015/1973, art. 129). The registry charges a fee under the state emoluments table. A consular POA does not need this step.

9. Consular Fees

Where an heir executes the POA at a Brazilian consulate, or obtains the CPF there, the consulate charges the fees in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ consular table, per act. These replace items 6, 7 and 8 for that document.

10. Publications and Expert Valuations — Judicial Track, When Ordered

Some judicial inventários require publication of notices (for instance, to summon an heir who cannot be located) and expert valuation of assets whose value is disputed or which the tax authority contests. These are incurred only when ordered, and charged by the official gazette or the court-appointed expert respectively.

11. Attorney Fees — Set in a Written Proposal

Brazilian law requires an attorney in both the judicial and the extrajudicial inventário. At ZS Advogados, fees are set out in a written proposal after an initial review of the estate — its assets, the states involved, the number and location of heirs, the track, and whether a sale of assets is planned. The proposal is provided before any work begins and distinguishes the fee from the official costs above, which are paid to third parties and passed through at cost. Fees are not presented on this page and are not a percentage of the estate.

Worked Example: A São Paulo Estate with Heirs Abroad

The example below uses only official cost items, for an illustrative estate. Figures marked “table lookup” are read from the relevant state table for the year and are not reproduced here because they change annually; the attorney fills them in at intake.

Facts. The deceased died in the United States, domiciled there, leaving no will. Assets in Brazil: one apartment in the city of São Paulo valued at R$900,000, a bank account with R$100,000, and no debts. Total estate value: R$1,000,000. Three adult heirs — one in the United States, one in the United Kingdom, one in Brazil — all in agreement. Extrajudicial track, deed executed before a São Paulo notary.

Reading the example: the tax line is four-fifths or more of the official costs for an estate of this size, and it is fully predictable from the asset values and the state. The remaining lines are table lookups whose combined total is typically a fraction of the ITCMD figure. The heir-abroad items (6–9) are modest individually but multiply with the number of heirs and documents.

Two variations.

• Same estate, judicial track (for example, because one heir could not be located): line 2 becomes the São Paulo taxa judiciária for an estate whose monte mor falls in the R$500,001–R$2,000,000 band — 300 UFESPs, a flat figure under Lei estadual 11.608/2003, art. 4, §7, not a percentage of the million; line 3 disappears; line 10 may add publication of a notice; the formal de partilha replaces the deed for registration.
• Same estate, apartment in Rio de Janeiro: line 1 for the apartment is calculated at Rio de Janeiro’s progressive ITCMD rates instead of São Paulo’s flat 4%, and the deed may still be executed before a São Paulo notary, since the notary may be freely chosen (Resolução CNJ 35/2007) — but the registration fee follows Rio de Janeiro’s table.

What makes an inventário cost more, or less?

How do you build the estimate for your own estate?

1. List the assets and the state each one sits in. The asset-search guide shows how to build that list.
2. Run the values through the ITCMD calculator for line 1.
3. Decide the likely track with the judicial vs extrajudicial comparison to know whether line 2 or line 3 applies.
4. Count heirs abroad and their documents for lines 6–9; the POA route guide explains which documents each route needs.
5. Ask for the table lookups and a written fee proposal.

ZS Advogados Associados prepares the completed version of the table above as part of the intake for any estate with heirs abroad, together with the fee proposal. Zachariah Zagol (OAB/SP 351.356) is the attorney responsible for the firm’s succession practice.

Sources

• Constituição Federal, art. 155 — ITCMD competence and the situs rules
• Lei estadual SP 10.705/2000 — ITCMD-SP; art. 21, I (late-opening penalties)
• Lei estadual SP 11.608/2003 — taxa judiciária; art. 4, I, §1 and §7 (the inventário bracket table)
• Código de Processo Civil (Lei 13.105/2015) — arts. 610–673; art. 669 (sobrepartilha)
• Resolução CNJ 35/2007, consolidated text — art. 1 (free choice of notary), art. 15 (taxes before the deed)
• Lei 14.195/2021 — sworn translators: arts. 24, 26, 27, 33
• Decreto 8.660/2016 — Hague Apostille Convention
• Lei 6.015/1973 — art. 129, 6º (registration of foreign documents)

Request a cost table for your estate →