You live in the United States. The Receita Federal may not know it.
If you left Brazil without notifying the Receita Federal (Brazil's Federal Revenue Service), you remain a Brazilian tax resident for your first year abroad, and Brazil can also tax what you earn in the United States. Over time, returns fall behind and your CPF (Brazilian taxpayer ID) may be flagged as pending. Cartório BR handles it for you with a partner accounting firm in Brazil, and you never have to travel.
- Handled by a partner accounting firm in Brazil
- A review of your situation before anything is filed
- Fully remote service, no trip to Brazil
Moving to another country does not end your relationship with the Receita Federal. Notifying it does.
If you leave without notifying the Receita, you remain a tax resident for your first 12 months abroad. Meanwhile, open items pile up: the Final Departure Tax Return is missing, and annual returns may be missing as well.
In practice, there are three consequences. First, while you are still a resident, you must file a return in Brazil and report your US income on it. Second, once your returns stop coming in, your CPF is flagged as "pending regularization" (pendente de regularização), and you only find out when you need it. Third, only part of the tax you have already paid in the United States can be credited in Brazil, which creates a risk of double taxation.
Almost no one skips the tax exit in bad faith. Most people simply never knew it existed.
Without a tax exit, the problem grows every year.
The Receita receives data from banks, registry offices, and foreign exchange transactions. Every year without regularization adds late returns, penalties, and the risk of a tax review (known in Brazil as malha fina). A CPF with pending issues can hold up a bank account, an inheritance, a property sale, a power of attorney, and even new documents.
Two filings that end your tax residence in Brazil
The tax exit (saída fiscal) consists of two filings with the Receita Federal that end your tax residence in Brazil.
Notice of Permanent Departure from Brazil (Comunicação de Saída Definitiva do País, CSDP). It tells the Receita that you have left Brazil and on what exact date. It is filed online, and the deadline is the last day of February of the year after you leave. From the date you report, you are treated as a nonresident.
Final Departure Tax Return (Declaração de Saída Definitiva do País, DSDP). This is the income tax return for the year you moved, covering the months when you were still a resident. It is filed the following year, by the same deadline as the annual income tax return (Declaração de Ajuste Anual), and it replaces the regular return for that year. If any tax is due, it is paid in a single installment.
Once both filings are complete, Brazil taxes only Brazilian-source income (rent, retirement benefits, sales of assets in Brazil), with the tax withheld at the source and no annual return. What you earn in the United States is no longer taxed in Brazil.
The tax exit applies only to the Receita Federal. Your CPF remains active, and your passport and consular services are not affected.
Tax resident during the first year abroad, with your US salary on the Brazilian return.
Nonresident. No annual return in Brazil. Only Brazilian-source income is taxed, through withholding at the source. A CPF in good standing, valid for transactions in Brazil and at the consulate.
Who needs a tax exit
You left Brazil recently and are still within the Notice deadline
This is the simplest case: the team files the Notice on time and, the year after you leave, the Final Departure Tax Return. No penalties and no late filings.
You have lived abroad for up to six years and never filed anything
The Notice deadline has passed, but the Final Departure Tax Return can still be filed, and that is the filing that regularizes your situation. There may be late returns from prior years, each with its own penalty. The preliminary review shows how much is outstanding.
You have lived abroad for more than six years and never filed anything
In this case, the obligations tied to the Final Departure Tax Return have expired under the statute of limitations, and the Receita no longer accepts those returns. What remains is to regularize your CPF through a specific procedure, proving your residence abroad and your departure date. Cartório BR guides you through this path as well, from start to finish.
You still file a Brazilian income tax return out of habit
Filing as a resident when you already live outside Brazil does not solve anything: it keeps you in the wrong status and can lead to tax you do not owe on what you earn in the United States.
You still have income in Brazil
Rent, retirement benefits from the INSS (Brazil's social security agency), a pension, or investments. The tax exit changes how this income is taxed and requires you to notify whoever pays it. Without that notice, the payer keeps treating you as a resident.
Pending issues on your CPF always surface on the worst possible day.
Nobody wakes up thinking about the Receita Federal. The issue sits there quietly until the day Brazil asks for a CPF in good standing.
People find out when they are about to close the sale of a property. Or when a relative dies and the probate case stalls because one of the heirs has a CPF with pending issues. Or when the bank freezes the account. Or when the registry office rejects a power of attorney that would let someone handle matters in Brazil.
Then the scramble begins: filing several years of late returns, paying penalties, waiting for processing, and only then doing what should have been done in the first place. All with someone waiting on the other end.
Done ahead of time, the tax exit is an orderly procedure with a known timeline. Done later, it is the same procedure, only rushed and with interest.
And it is not just the CPF. Your retirement benefits and other income still paid in Brazil may continue to be taxed incorrectly. Your US salary may also keep being taxed in Brazil, with credit for only part of the tax you have already paid in the United States.
Without a tax exit, these can be put on hold:
- Selling or buying property in Brazil
- Probate and receiving an inheritance
- Using your bank account in Brazil
- Withdrawing your FGTS (Brazil's severance fund)
- A power of attorney at a registry office
- Issuing documents that require a CPF in good standing
The Receita Federal requires the Notice and sets its deadline.
The rules for the tax exit are set out in Normative Instruction SRF No. 208 of September 27, 2002 (Instrução Normativa SRF nº 208), a Receita Federal regulation on the taxation of individuals who reside or are domiciled abroad.
The Notice and its deadline. Under Article 11-A, an individual living in Brazil who leaves the country permanently must file the Notice of Permanent Departure. The deadline runs from the departure date to the last day of February of the following calendar year. If the departure began as temporary and later became permanent, the deadline runs from the date the person became a nonresident. Paragraph 1 of the same article makes clear that the Notice does not replace the Final Departure Tax Return.
The Return and its deadline. Under Article 9, item I, anyone who leaves Brazil permanently must file the Final Departure Tax Return covering the period during which they were a resident in the year of departure. It must be accompanied by any returns from prior years that are still missing and is due by the deadline for the annual income tax return, which the Receita sets each year.
Without the Notice, you remain a resident during the first year. Article 2, item V, treats as a resident of Brazil, during the first 12 months of absence, anyone who leaves the country without filing the Notice of Permanent Departure. From the thirteenth month on, the person becomes a nonresident (Article 3, item II). Even so, the Final Departure Tax Return and any missing returns remain due until the situation is regularized, and the CPF may be flagged as pending.
What changes afterward. From the departure date on, Brazilian-source income is taxed exclusively at the source or on a final basis, and you must inform the payer of that date (Article 10, main provision and paragraph 1, which refers to Articles 26 to 45). If you live abroad and earn nothing in Brazil, you no longer have any tax to report there.
Late-filing penalty. A Final Departure Tax Return filed after the deadline is subject to the penalty set out in Article 13 of the same Normative Instruction: a fixed minimum amount or a monthly percentage of the tax due, up to a cap. The preliminary review calculates this amount before anything is filed.
The rule has been in place since 2002, and the Notice since 2010. The problem is that almost no one who moves abroad gets this information at the right time. Cartório BR bridges the gap between Brazilians living in the United States and the Receita Federal, with the support of a partner accounting firm in Brazil.
Governs the taxation of individuals who reside or are domiciled abroad.
Notice of Permanent Departure from Brazil.
Guidance on tax regularization for residents abroad.
Sets the deadline for the annual income tax return.
What you need to send
For a standard tax exit (Notice and Final Departure Tax Return for the primary taxpayer):
- CPF number
- Voter registration number (título de eleitor)
- Receipt number of the last income tax return you filed, if any
- Valid Brazilian passport
- A certificate proving your marital status: your birth certificate if you are single; your marriage certificate if you are married; or your marriage certificate with the divorce annotation (averbação) if you are divorced
- Current proof of address in the United States
- The exact date you left Brazil
- Access to your gov.br account (silver or gold level) or an e-CPF A1 digital certificate, so the team can log in to the Receita's portal
- The last income tax return you filed in Brazil, if any
- Brazilian income statements for the year you left (employment, rent, retirement benefits), only if you received any income before leaving
- A simple list of the assets and rights you still have in Brazil (real estate, vehicles, investments), if any
How it works: four steps, all from the United States
Tell us about your situation
The Cartório BR team does a quick screening: what year you left, whether you have ever filed a Final Departure Tax Return, and whether you still have a bank account, property, rental income, or retirement benefits in Brazil. That is usually enough to tell which case applies to you.
The team checks your status with the Receita
Using your gov.br access (silver or gold level) or your digital certificate, the team logs in to the Receita's portal and checks your actual situation: late returns, pending items, debts, and CPF status. Nothing is filed before this review. You get a clear answer about what is on file and what needs to be done.
The team files the Notice and the Final Departure Tax Return
If the Notice deadline is still open, the team files it. Next, the team prepares the Final Departure Tax Return with your income and assets for the period when you were still a resident and files it by the Receita's deadline. Any returns from prior years that are missing show up in the review and are quoted separately.
You get the receipts and guidance for what comes next
You receive the receipts for the Notice and the Return, along with guidance on your bank account, on how to notify those who pay you (INSS, tenant, bank), and on what changes in the taxation of the income you still have in Brazil. If any tax is due, you also receive the payment slip (DARF) to pay it in a single installment.
Why choose Cartório BR?
Experience in both Brazil and the United States
Francisco Harto has lived in the United States since 2016 and has volunteered at Brazilian mobile consulate events since 2017. Cartório BR has served the Brazilian community in the US for more than five years, mainly in Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco.
A partner accounting firm in Brazil
A registered accounting team in Brazil, working in the Receita Federal's portal every day, handles the technical side. Cartório BR serves you in the United States, in your time zone and in your language.
A review before anything is filed
Nothing is filed blindly. First, the team checks your actual status with the Receita; only then do you decide, with the facts in hand. This keeps you from filing anything that is not needed and from being caught off guard by pending issues later.
Guidance for life after the tax exit
The tax exit changes the rules for your bank account in Brazil and the taxation of rent and retirement benefits, and it requires you to notify those who pay you. You finish the process knowing what to do about each item, without having to become an expert.
Mistakes that complicate a tax exit
Assuming that, because you earn nothing in Brazil, you do not need to do anything. The obligation to notify applies even if you have no income there.
Continuing to file the annual return as a resident after moving, and reporting your US salary on it.
Filing only the Notice and forgetting the Final Departure Tax Return the following year. One does not replace the other.
Reporting a departure date that differs from the real one. The date determines when you became a nonresident and changes the entire tax calculation.
Not telling the INSS, your tenant, or your bank that you are a nonresident, and continuing to be taxed as a resident as a result.
Keeping an MEI (Brazil's individual microentrepreneur registration) or an interest in a company taxed under Simples Nacional (Brazil's simplified tax regime for small businesses) after leaving, which the law does not allow for nonresidents.
Waiting until your CPF is flagged to seek help, when a sale, an inheritance, or a bank account is already on hold.
The Receita Federal sets the deadlines. Your departure date determines your case.
The Notice of Permanent Departure is filed online by the last day of February of the year after you leave. The Final Departure Tax Return is filed the following year, along with the annual income tax return, whose deadline the Receita announces each year (usually between March and May). If you missed these deadlines, you can still file the Final Departure Tax Return with a penalty, as long as you left less than six years ago. After that, what remains is to regularize your CPF. How long the work takes depends on what the preliminary review shows, such as overdue years and income to be reported, and you receive that estimate along with the review results.
Frequently asked questions
No. The Notice and the Final Departure Tax Return are filed online, in the Receita Federal's system, by our partner accounting firm in Brazil, using your gov.br access or your digital certificate. You can follow every step from wherever you are.
No. Your CPF remains active; only your registration changes to show residence abroad. In fact, the tax exit is what keeps your CPF in good standing. Nothing changes at the consulate: your passport and other services continue as before.
Yes, but the bank must be notified that you are a nonresident, and the account becomes subject to specific Central Bank of Brazil rules for people living abroad. The team explains what to tell the bank. Cartório BR does not advise on where or how to invest; that is not part of this service.
These payments continue. What changes is the taxation: for nonresidents, the tax is withheld at the source or paid on a final basis, and you need to notify whoever pays you (INSS, tenant, or property manager). Even with this income, you no longer need to file an annual return.
It depends on how long ago you left. Up to six years after your departure, the Final Departure Tax Return can still be filed, with a penalty, and it regularizes your situation. After six years, the Receita no longer accepts the returns, and the path is to regularize your CPF through a specific procedure, with proof of residence abroad. The preliminary review shows which case applies to you.
If the Final Departure Tax Return is filed after the deadline, the Receita Federal charges a late-filing penalty, with a fixed minimum amount and a cap proportional to the tax due. If no tax is due, the penalty is the minimum amount. If you file on time, there is no penalty.
As a rule, no. Only someone who was a tax resident of Brazil needs to report a departure, and a person who obtained a CPF while living in the United States, without ever having lived in Brazil, does not fall into that category. Each case is confirmed in the preliminary review.
Yes. If you move back to live in Brazil or spend more than 183 days there within 12 months, you become a tax resident again as of your arrival date, file returns as a resident, and notify those who pay you. The tax exit does not mean giving up any rights: it only ends your tax residence while you live abroad.
No. Cartório BR is a private document services company. The Notice and the Return are filings made with the Receita Federal, and the outcome of their processing rests solely with the Receita. We guide you, prepare and file the Notice and the Return, and follow the process through to the end, working with a partner accounting firm in Brazil.
Don't wait for a blocked CPF to learn your departure was never reported.
If you moved to the United States and never reported your departure, your situation with the Receita Federal is still pending. Cartório BR starts by reviewing your situation, handles both filings with our partner accounting firm, and guides you on the bank account, rental income, and retirement benefits you still have in Brazil.
Remote service for Brazilians in the United States, with a team in both countries.