Foreign Investment in Brazil
Over the last few decades, foreign direct investments (FDI) have played a very relevant role in Brazilian industrialization attracted especially by the large domestic market – but also by government policies – and directed preferentially towards capital and technology-intensive industrial (and more recently services) sectors.
Brazilian law gives the same protection and guarantees to foreign capital investments that it gives to investments made by Brazilian nationals. Special incentives are offered for investments in mining, fishing, tourism, shipbuilding, and reforestation and for projects undertaken in the northeast and Amazon regions.
Brazil’s Foreign Capital and Profit Remittance Law of 1962, as amended, regulate the registration of foreign capital and of reinvestment, profit remittance, interest, royalties, and payments for technical assistance, as well as repatriation of foreign capital. There is no limitation on the repatriation of capital; reinvestment of profits is considered an increase of the original capital for the purposes of the law.
Intending to encourage foreign investments, Brazil’s former finance minister, Antonio Palocci, has introduced a program called “Invest Now” which consists of an expedited tax refund for the value paid in federal taxes by businesses operating in Brazil. He also introduced a significant federal tax reduction in addition to reductions on insurance, financial operations, industrialized products and construction investments.
Click on the Legal guide for foreign investors in Brazil which contains information about the procedures, regulation, jurisdiction, etc. of the Brazilian system.