Freight forwarders in Brazil: accounting, tax and customs essentials

Freight forwarding in Brazil sits at the intersection of customs, tax and foreign exchange. A forwarder that opens or runs a Brazilian operation for an international network deals with customs reporting duties that carry their own fines, a municipal services tax whose classification varies by city, payments to carriers and agents abroad with different tax treatments, and a revenue figure that can look very different depending on how each shipment is contracted. This guide covers what a foreign freight forwarder should know about accounting and tax in Brazil, and where the decisions that matter most are made.

Who is a freight forwarder under Brazilian law

Brazilian customs law calls the forwarder an agente de carga, defined as any person who, on behalf of the importer or the exporter, contracts the transport of goods, consolidates or deconsolidates cargo and provides related services (Decree-Law 37/1966, article 37, paragraph 1). The definition matters because it brings the forwarder directly into the customs control system: like the carrier, the forwarder must report information on the operations it performs and the cargo involved.

Brazilian courts have also drawn a line between the forwarder and the shipping agent (agente marítimo), who represents the carrier and has a different set of responsibilities. A company whose articles of association include cargo consolidation can be treated as a freight forwarder for customs purposes, with the corresponding liability.

Customs reporting: where the fines are

For ocean cargo, the information on vessels, cargo and bills of lading is reported through the Federal Revenue’s Siscomex Carga module and the Mercante system, under Normative Instruction RFB 800/2007. Forwarders that consolidate and deconsolidate cargo must be registered in these systems, and NVOCCs (non-vessel operating common carriers) also deal with ANTAQ, the National Waterway Transportation Agency.

Late, missing or incorrect information is subject to fines under the customs law (Decree-Law 37/1966, article 107, item IV), and the courts have upheld these fines against forwarders. Because each shipment generates its own reporting, the fines can accumulate quickly in a busy operation. In practice, the quality of the operations team’s data entry is a tax and compliance issue, not only an operational one.

AFRMM: the freight surcharge for the merchant navy

Ocean freight to and from Brazil is subject to the AFRMM, the Additional Freight for the Renewal of the Merchant Navy, calculated on the remuneration of waterway transport. Since the 2022 reform (Law 14,301/2022), the rate is 8% for long-haul navigation and 8% for cabotage, with 40% on liquid bulk on rivers and lakes in the North and Northeast regions (Law 10,893/2004, article 6). Many older sources still quote the previous 25% rate for long-haul shipping. The AFRMM is processed through the Mercante system, which is one more reason the freight data the forwarder enters there must be right.

Taxes on the forwarder’s own revenue

ISS: classification depends on the service and the city

The municipal services tax (ISS) applies to services listed in Complementary Law 116/2003, at rates between 2% and 5% set by each city. The list does not have a single item called “freight forwarding”. Depending on what the company actually does and how the city reads the list, the service may fall under agency or intermediation items (for example item 10.05, agency and intermediation of movable goods), port and logistics services, or others. Classification disputes with cities are common, especially in port cities. The classification should be confirmed with the city where the company is established before the first invoice.

Services exported abroad can be exempt from ISS, but courts have held that services performed and completed in Brazil, such as handling cargo at a Brazilian port, are not exports even when the cargo is bound for another country. Export treatment has to be analyzed service by service.

PIS, Cofins, IRPJ and CSLL

Like any Brazilian company, the forwarder pays PIS and Cofins on revenue and corporate income tax (IRPJ) and the Social Contribution on Net Income (CSLL) on profit, under the Lucro Presumido or Lucro Real regime. A Brazilian company owned by a foreign group cannot opt for the Simples Nacional. Under Lucro Presumido, income tax is calculated on a percentage of revenue, which makes the definition of revenue decisive, as explained next.

The key question: gross freight or margin?

A forwarder typically collects from the customer an amount that includes the international freight it will pay to the carrier, plus its own fee or margin. Whether the full amount or only the margin is the forwarder’s revenue depends on how the operation is structured:

• When the forwarder acts in its own name as principal, for example as an NVOCC issuing its own house bill of lading and taking on the carrier risk, the full freight tends to be treated as its revenue, and the amount paid to the carrier as its cost.
• When the forwarder acts as an agent on behalf of the client, contracting transport in the client’s name and passing the freight through, the amounts passed through may be treated as reimbursements rather than revenue, with the forwarder’s fee as its revenue.

The accounting standard on revenue (CPC 47, equivalent to IFRS 15) has its own principal-versus-agent test. The tax authorities and cities, however, may look at the contracts, the invoices and the flow of money, and do not always reach the same conclusion as the accounts. This single decision changes the base for PIS, Cofins and ISS, the presumed profit under Lucro Presumido and even which tax regime is available. It should be designed deliberately and documented contract by contract, with invoices that reflect it.

Paying carriers and agents abroad

A forwarder’s Brazilian operation pays carriers, airlines and partner agents in other countries every week, and each type of payment has its own treatment:

• Freight and charter of foreign vessels and aircraft, as well as container rental and demurrage, are subject to withholding income tax at a zero rate under Law 9,481/1997, article 1, item I, under the conditions the law sets.
• Agency fees and other services paid to foreign partners are generally treated as imported services: withholding income tax at 15% or 25%, PIS-Import and Cofins-Import, ISS and, where applicable, CIDE. See our guide on paying services and royalties abroad from Brazil.
• IOF on foreign exchange applies to the outflow of funds, and its rate depends on how the transaction is classified with the bank.

Mixing freight and service charges on the same invoice from a foreign agent makes it harder to apply the right treatment to each part. Asking network partners to separate them saves tax and disputes.

Accounting that fits a forwarding business

Beyond tax, a forwarder’s books have specific needs that generic accounting often misses:

• Profitability per shipment. Revenue and costs should be traceable to each job or house bill of lading, so margins can be checked and reported to the network.
• Accruals for carrier and agent costs. Carrier invoices often arrive after the customer is billed. Without accruals, the monthly result swings and the margin per shipment is wrong.
• Multi-currency balances. Receivables and payables in several currencies generate exchange gains and losses that must be measured and, for tax purposes, recognized under the method the company has chosen.
• Agent statement reconciliations. Balances with network partners abroad need regular reconciliation and settlement, so that intercompany and partner balances agree on both sides.
• Reporting to the network or headquarters in the group’s format and calendar, with BR GAAP reconciled to the group’s accounting policies.

What the tax reform changes

The consumption tax reform replaces PIS and Cofins with the CBS from 2027, and the ISS with the IBS between 2029 and 2033. For forwarders, the questions to revisit are the treatment of intermediation and pass-through amounts under the new taxes, credits on purchases, export immunity and the tax on imported services from foreign agents. See our guide on Brazil’s tax reform.

Checklist for a forwarder operating in Brazil

1. Register correctly in Siscomex Carga, Mercante and, for NVOCCs, with ANTAQ, and set up controls for reporting deadlines.
2. Confirm the ISS classification and rate with the city before invoicing.
3. Decide, and document, whether each product is sold as principal or as agent, and align contracts, invoices and accounting.
4. Choose the income tax regime after modeling revenue under that decision.
5. Separate freight from service charges in payments abroad and apply the right withholding to each.
6. Run job costing, accruals and multi-currency controls every month.
7. Prepare systems and contracts for CBS in 2027.

How Solidy can help

Logistics and transportation is one of the sectors Solidy serves most, and we already serve subsidiaries of multinational companies in Brazil. Our consultants help freight forwarders structure their Brazilian operation, define revenue and tax treatment, run accounting with job-level profitability and multi-currency controls, and keep tax compliance and reporting to the network on schedule. Talk to our consultants.