Your household goods to Brazil: free of import duties as bagagem desacompanhada, between three months before and six months after your arrival

Yes, your household goods enter Brazil free of import duties, and the rule is not in a remover's brochure but in article 162 of the customs regulation: "the foreigner who enters the country to live there permanently" is entitled to an exemption for "furniture and other goods for household use" and for "tools, machines, appliances and instruments necessary for the exercise of his profession, art or trade", new or used. What it costs is the shipping and the customs broker; the declaration itself is, according to the service, free. The pitfall is the clock: the container is bagagem desacompanhada and must arrive between three months before and six months after your own arrival, otherwise it falls under ordinary import with the full duties.

Rule	What customs says	Article
What is free	furniture, household goods, professional tools; new or used	162
For whom	the foreigner who settles permanently, or whoever lived abroad for more than a year	162
Professional tools	only with prior proof of the profession you exercised abroad	162, § 1
Deadline	arrival between three months before and six months after the traveller	158, § 1
Origin	from the country or countries where you stayed	158, § 1
Release	only after your own arrival	158, § 2
Too late or outside the list	ordinary import, with duties; unless the delay was beyond your control	161
No permanent visa yet	the goods may wait under temporary admission	162, § 2

What is bagagem desacompanhada?

Article 155 of Decreto 6.759 defines baggage as "new or used goods that a traveller, in keeping with the circumstances of his journey, can destine for his personal use or consumption, or as gifts", as long as quantity, nature and variety do not suggest a commercial purpose. Bagagem desacompanhada is what "arrives in the country under cover of a bill of lading": the container, the crate, the pallet. There the two requirements of article 158 apply: the baggage must come from the country where you stayed, and must arrive in the window from three months before to six months after you. The second paragraph adds that customs clears it "only after the arrival of the traveller".

Article 161 says what happens when it goes wrong: goods that fall outside the concept of baggage, or that "arrive as unaccompanied baggage without observing the deadlines and conditions set", fall under the ordinary import regime. Only if the overrun of the deadline was "beyond the will of the traveller" does the baggage regime continue to apply (third paragraph). A delayed ship is therefore defensible; a container you only have come after eight months because the house was not found yet, is not.

Which exemption applies on moving?

The ordinary baggage exemption of article 158 covers used clothing and personal items, books and periodicals. Article 162 adds the household goods on top for whoever settles permanently: furniture and household goods, and professional tools, both new or used. For the tools one condition applies: the first paragraph asks for "prior proof of the activity the traveller exercised abroad" — an employer's statement or an extract from the Chamber of Commerce, in Portuguese. Whoever brings his equipment as a self-employed person arranges that proof before the container closes.

What is not among them is the rest: a car, a boat, trading stock, and everything that by number or newness looks like trade. For used cars article 35 of Portaria SECEX 249 closes the door entirely.

The exemption hangs on "permanent", and you prove that with the Polícia Federal. Article 162 is for "the foreigner who enters the country to live there permanently", and the second paragraph says what happens as long as that is not yet established: "as long as the permanent visa has not been granted, the goods may remain in the country under the regime of temporary admission". Bring the protocol of your registration to the clearance — article 63 of the migration decree gives it the force of the card — and count on the customs broker wanting to see the statement that your stay is not a visit.

How do I declare?

With a Declaração Simplificada de Importação, the DSI, in the customs system Siscomex. The service says you can draw it up yourself if you have access to the system, and otherwise through a customs officer or a despachante aduaneiro appointed by you. You follow the handling in the same system, where the inspector can set requirements or release the declaration; the service names no deadline for it. The declaration itself is free. What the remover and the customs broker charge is their rate, and the ports charge storage per day: so do not let the container leave earlier than three months before your flight, and count back from your arrival.

A detailed inventory in Portuguese, with the contents and a value per box, is the document the inspector reads. Everything that is new in the box draws attention; what is used and fits a household does not. How the rest of the arrival interlocks — the card, the address, the bank — is in the first weeks.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey, step 4.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Brazil or go straight to step 4.1 in the open plan.