Before you start

CPF
A clear determination of when you became tax resident
Records of Brazilian and foreign income
A gov.br account at silver or gold level

Step-by-step

1
Establish your residency start date
Permanent visa or a Brazilian employment contract makes you resident from arrival. On a temporary visa you stay non-resident until you have completed 183 days of presence within a twelve-month period and become resident on day 184; the days need not be consecutive, and if you do not reach 184 days inside those twelve months the count restarts from your next entry.
OnlineWho: You
2
Start carnê-leão if you have foreign-source income
Residents receiving income from abroad or from individuals must compute and pay tax monthly, due by the last working day of the following month. Arrivals from withholding-tax countries assume the annual return is when money changes hands, and accrue a year of interest before finding out otherwise.
OnlineWho: YouMonthly
3
File the annual Declaração de Ajuste Anual
The DIRPF covers the previous calendar year and is filed March to end of May through Receita Federal's software or the Meu Imposto de Renda app. Late filing attracts an automatic minimum penalty whether or not you owe.
OnlineWho: YouMarch to end of May
4
Budget the ITIV, not the ITBI, if you buy
Salvador's municipal transfer tax is called ITIV and is administered by the Secretaria Municipal da Fazenda through the Declaração de Transações Imobiliárias, filed online by the buyer. The general rate is 3% of the transaction value, with a 1% band for qualifying popular housing. It must be paid before the deed is executed or the transfer registered, so it belongs in the purchase budget rather than in the completion paperwork.
OnlineWho: You
5
Check the IPTU discount calendar before the year starts
IPTU is billed annually by the Prefeitura with a discount for paying in a single instalment early in the year — Salvador has offered 5% for cota única. The bill can be passed to a tenant by contract, so read who pays it into the lease rather than assuming.
OnlineWho: You
6
File the Comunicação de Saída Definitiva when you leave
Residency does not end because you boarded a plane. The communication is filed from the date of departure up to the last day of February of the following calendar year, followed by the final Declaração de Saída Definitiva. Without both, Receita Federal keeps treating you as resident and taxable on worldwide income for the first twelve consecutive months of absence.
OnlineWho: YouBy the last day of February after the year you leave

Documents you’ll need

CPF
Informe de rendimentos from each Brazilian payer
Records of foreign income and foreign tax paid
Medical, education and dependant receipts with the provider's CPF/CNPJ
IPTU and ITIV notices, where you own property
Bank and investment positions as at 31 December

Things most newcomers don’t know

In Salvador the transfer tax is called ITIV, and searching for 'ITBI Salvador' finds the wrong forms.

Every other Brazilian capital in this guide calls its transfer tax ITBI. Salvador's Secretaria Municipal da Fazenda calls it ITIV — Imposto sobre a Transmissão Inter Vivos — and runs it through its own Declaração de Transações Imobiliárias system. The tax is the same constitutional levy at a 3% general rate, but the name is what you need at the counter, in the notary's office and in the search box.

Source: Sefaz Salvador — ITIV

Completing 184 days of presence in a twelve-month period makes you taxable on worldwide income.

Everyone calls this the 183-day rule; the threshold is passing it, so residence attaches on day 184. The days need not be consecutive, so someone splitting a year between Brazil and elsewhere can cross the line without any single long stay. From that date Brazil taxes global salary, capital gains and investment income. This is the most consequential rule for anyone arriving without a local employment contract, and it is routinely discovered a year late.

Source: Receita Federal — IN SRF 208/2002, art. 2

Foreign income is paid monthly through carnê-leão, not at filing time.

Anyone with an offshore employer, foreign clients or overseas rental income must calculate and pay Brazilian tax every month, due by the last working day of the following month. Interest and penalties accrue quietly from the first missed month. Setting up the monthly routine in your first weeks is far cheaper than reconstructing twelve months of it in April.

Source: Receita Federal — carnê-leão

Municipal transfer tax is set city by city, so a figure from a friend in another capital is simply the wrong number.

Salvador charges 3%, Curitiba 2.7%, Florianópolis 2% and Recife has been running a temporarily reduced 2%. On an ordinary flat that spread is worth thousands of reais and it changes which city is actually cheaper to buy in. Check the Prefeitura's own table for the city you are buying in, on the day you are buying.

Source: Sefaz Salvador and comparative municipal ITBI tables

Common mistakes to avoid

Searching for 'ITBI' in Salvador and filing on the wrong system — here it is the ITIV and its own DTI declaration.
Crossing the 184th day of presence unnoticed and becoming taxable on worldwide income from that date.
Not paying carnê-leão monthly on foreign income and accruing a year of interest.
Missing the end-of-May filing deadline, which carries an automatic minimum penalty.
Leaving Brazil without filing the Comunicação de Saída Definitiva.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.