[RalphJ]

Originally Posted by PAUL-brasil

Hi Ralph,
Strange then that one, as i orginally sent in GBP then the Banco sent it back to me, my bank explained it was for that reason so i redid the transfer in USD then ok. Anyway while i have your helpful input, a few questions if ya dont mind to see if your answers match how i already believe things to be,

If you already own a property though a personal purchase as a foreigner can you use this later to gain visa and business acc as in place of the $50K, (if you have the resident partner eg 0.5% for the business at hand) ?

What are the advantage/disadvantage of owning property in your business name instead of individual ownership Capital Gains etc ?

In private name for a foreigner aswell the Ganho de Capital states that if you only have that 1 property after 5years the upto R$440K would be tax free (instead of the 15% then minus the each years depreciation), would this apply if property was in a business name?

How much should a lawyer in brasil charge roughly for organising the investment acc and visa?

Cheers
Paul

Paul;

I can tell you that the bank's in England are absolutely TERRIBLE when it comes to transferring money to Brazil. In all fairness, Brazil is not typical in respect to most countries on how they go about liquidating funds. In Brazil, it doesn't matter to which bank you are sending to(destination bank), an incoming international transfer will first be received by either Banco do Brasil or *Bradesco(*only if the final destination bank is with Bradesco) for them to liquidate the monies and complete the beurocracy that Banco Central requires. After the beurocracy is completed Banco do Brasil then sends the liquidated funds onto the final recipient bank in "reais".

So, it can be confusing to some international wire departments in England when they see a transfer going to HSBC in Fortaleza, Brazil, with all the account details of an HSBC account, but a swift code for Banco do Brasil in Fortaleza. Many times in my experience the banks in England return the transfer to the branch, or they give the customer incorrect information, such as, "this bank doesn't receive GBP, you must send in dollars, euro's, etc", or they send it on to Brazil with information other than the information you provided.

I have probably liquidated 20+ transfers from England in the last 4 years and I would say that at least 18 of them had problems and those problems were initiated in England. It doesn't matter how many times you tell them, "don't think, just send it with the information given", they just can't seem to do it. Lloyd's TSB is the absolute WORST! Matter of fact, I absolutely refuse to receive transfers from Lloyd's anymore. I've spoken with managers at numerous branches as well as people at their international wire dep't. as well as people at their home office in Scotland....and they just can't seem to follow instructions and understand exactly how Brazil goes about liquidating international transfers.

HSBC also told us once that we couldn't send GBP to our account at Caixa Economica. And this after we had already sent hundreds of thousands of pounds to our account at Caixa Economica. What they didn't understand, once again like most, is that Banco do Brasil does the liquidation independant of what the final destination bank may be. So, account details must be for the recipient bank, but the swift code must be for Banco do Brasil in the city to which you are sending. And to get people at your branch, then their wire dept. to understand this really seems to be rocket science to most of these folks.

If you already own a property though a personal purchase as a foreigner can you use this later to gain visa and business acc as in place of the $50K, (if you have the resident partner eg 0.5% for the business at hand) ?

It depends. How did you purchase the property? How were the funds sent? Were they sent to Brazil by you? How were they liquidated? What does Banco Central see in their system in relation to this purchase?

What are the advantage/disadvantage of owning property in your business name instead of individual ownership Capital Gains etc ?

That's a good question. And since we've yet to sell any of our assets here I'm not sure of the answer at this moment. But I'll get it for you tomorrow from our accountant and get back with you.

In private name for a foreigner aswell the Ganho de Capital states that if you only have that 1 property after 5years the upto R$440K would be tax free (instead of the 15% then minus the each years depreciation), would this apply if property was in a business name?

I'm 99% sure it does...but let me confirm this tomorrow as well.

How much should a lawyer in brasil charge roughly for organising the investment acc and visa?

To open a business you should be able to do this with an accountant for 1,000 reais at the most...you can even do it a little cheaper depending on the accountant. Our accountant, whom is very good and knows a lot of people, which unfortunately here in Brazil the most valuable commodity is "knowing people", charges us 1,000 reais to open a business. But we normally have it opened in two weeks max...which is fast for here.

As far as hiring a lawyer to get your investors visa I just paid a lawyer that specializes in this area, and she got a portuguese investor friend of mine his, 3,500 reais per person, and I'm getting two of them for my partners.