Offshore for E-commerce: How Brazilian Owners Are Taxed in 2026

A Brazilian e-commerce owner can use an offshore company to sell abroad, get paid in foreign currency or operate abroad, but still pays tax in Brazil. Law No. 14,754/2023 (Lei 14.754/2023) taxes the controlled company's profit, Law No. 14,596/2023 (Lei 14.596/2023) polices its dealings with the Brazilian company, and the CBE reports the assets to the Central Bank.

When does an offshore company make sense for e-commerce?

It makes sense when the operation already happens outside Brazil: customers abroad, payment in foreign currency, accounts in other countries, or inventory and logistics outside Brazilian territory. In those cases, a foreign company organizes the business. It does not eliminate tax for someone who lives in Brazil, and Brazilian law does not treat e-commerce as a category of its own.

The most common models have specific guides:

This guide covers what applies to any of these models when the owner lives in Brazil.

How does Brazil tax the profit of an e-commerce owner's offshore company?

If you control the company, it is a controlled entity under Law 14,754/2023. Control exists when you, alone or with related persons, hold more than 50% of the capital or profit rights, or have preponderance in decisions or the power to elect most of the directors (art. 5, § 1). The rate is 15% (art. 2, § 1), and when the tax applies depends on how the entity is classified:

An operating e-commerce business usually generates sales revenue, which counts as own active income. But the jurisdiction matters on its own: a controlled entity in a favored-taxation country pays on December 31 even with high active income. The law excludes from own active income, among other things, royalties, interest, dividends, rents and financial investments (art. 5, § 6, I).

RFB Normative Instruction 1,037/2010 (IN RFB 1.037/2010) contains the Federal Revenue Service lists:

• •Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands appear in art. 1.
• •A US state LLC with nonresident participation and not subject to federal income tax is a privileged tax regime (art. 2, VII). Cosit Consultation Ruling No. 56/2026 (Solução de Consulta Cosit nº 56/2026) confirmed this in its summary for LLCs treated as transparent.
• •The United Arab Emirates left the art. 1 list under RFB Normative Instruction 2,265/2025 (IN RFB 2.265/2025). That does not end the analysis: you still need to look at art. 2 and the 60% active income rule.

Those who prefer another path can choose to declare the controlled entity's assets and rights as if they were their own. The art. 8 option is irrevocable and final for as long as you hold the entity, and applies entity by entity. The article opaque or transparent offshore explains the consequences.

If the Brazilian company trades with the offshore company, what changes?

A lot, because the transfer pricing rules of Law 14,596/2023 come in. They apply to legal entities domiciled in Brazil that carry out controlled transactions with related parties abroad, and they affect the corporate income tax (IRPJ) and social contribution on net profit (CSLL) base (art. 1, sole paragraph). The terms of the transaction must be those that would be set between unrelated parties in comparable transactions (art. 2).

Points that matter for an e-commerce owner:

• •What a controlled transaction is: any commercial or financial relationship between related parties, direct or indirect, including contracts and series of transactions (art. 3). Buying and selling goods between the two companies falls here.
• •Who is a related party: the controlling shareholder and its controlled entities, entities under common control, and entities in which the same partner holds 20% or more of the capital of each (art. 4, § 1, I, VI and VII). If you hold 20% or more of the capital of the Brazilian company and of the offshore company, they are related parties.
• •Documentation: the taxpayer must present documentation showing compliance with the principle (art. 34). Without the necessary information, the authority may allocate to the Brazilian company functions, assets and risks with no evidence that they were assumed by the other party (art. 34, § 1, I).
• •Royalties and technical assistance: payment to a related party is not deductible when the deduction generates double non-taxation in the cases of art. 44.
• •Effective date: the law applies from January 1, 2024 (art. 47), with an option for early application in 2023 (art. 45).

For designing these operations, see transfer pricing in Brazil.

What does an e-commerce owner need to declare about the offshore company?

Besides the annual income tax return (DAA), the Central Bank requires the Brazilian Capital Abroad Census (CBE) from anyone whose assets abroad total US$ 1 million or more on December 31 (BCB Resolution 279/2022, arts. 10 and 12). The annual deadline runs from February 15 to April 5, and the penalty for not filing ranges from BRL 2,500 to BRL 250,000, and may be increased by 50% in some cases, according to the BCB page.

For those who sell abroad, three items of BCB Resolution 279/2022 deserve attention:

• •interests in nonresident companies and deposits in nonresident institutions go in the CBE (art. 7, I and VI);
• •export revenue kept abroad and its use (art. 7, § 1, I) and income from Brazilian capital abroad (art. 7, § 1, II) must also be reported;
• •financial transfers go through an institution authorized to operate in foreign exchange (art. 6), and the documentation of the operations must be kept for 10 years (art. 3, sole paragraph).

The compliance service and the guide how to declare an offshore company on the income tax return cover the filing routine.

Does an offshore company protect an e-commerce owner's assets from creditors?

Not as a promise. The structure does not stop a creditor from challenging acts done to harm them, and the Civil Code (Código Civil) sets out rules on fraud against creditors in arts. 158 to 165:

• •the gratuitous transfer of assets by a debtor who is already insolvent, or who is made insolvent by it, can be annulled by unsecured creditors (art. 158);
• •onerous contracts by an insolvent debtor can also be annulled when the insolvency is notorious or the other party had reason to know of it (art. 159);
• •the action can be brought against the debtor, whoever contracted with the debtor, or third-party acquirers in bad faith (art. 161);
• •guarantees given to one creditor by an insolvent debtor are presumed fraudulent (art. 163);
• •ordinary transactions essential to keeping the business running are presumed to be in good faith (art. 164);
• •once the transactions are annulled, the benefit reverts to the estate for the creditors' proceedings (art. 165).

In practice, moving assets abroad after the debts have arisen is the highest-risk scenario. The article protecting assets from creditors goes deeper into the topic.

What steps should you follow to structure an offshore company for e-commerce?

1. •Map the operation: where the customers, inventory and money are, and who signs the contracts.
2. •Check whether the Brazilian company will trade with the offshore company. If so, plan the transfer pricing documentation from the start.
3. •Check the country and regime in IN RFB 1.037/2010 and estimate the controlled entity's own active income.
4. •Define how the profit is treated: arts. 5 and 6, or the art. 8 option.
5. •Send funds through an institution authorized to operate in foreign exchange and keep the documents for 10 years.
6. •Include the profit and assets in the DAA and file the CBE if the total abroad reaches US$ 1 million.
7. •Review the classification every year, because income and the Federal Revenue Service lists change.

Step 1 and the choice of vehicle are simpler with the support of corporate structures.