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richsa05
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Topic: Brazil's business labyrinth of bureaucracy
Posted: 17 May 2012 at 11:19

Interesting small article for those new to brazil who are thinking about starting up a business here.

Brazil's business labyrinth of bureaucracy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18020623

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Zbrazil1
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Posted: 19 June 2012 at 10:13

Good Lord...heard of lot's of horror stories.

Know a guy that has to constantly bribe in order to get anything done. He was even targetted one time by a tax man for something he didn't do and ordered to pay several hundreds of thousands of reais or go to Jail...he ended up working out a bribe with the tax man where he paid him something to the tune of 50,000 grand.....

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Gringo.Floripa
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Posted: 19 June 2012 at 10:31

Originally posted by Zbrazil1

Know a guy that has to constantly bribe in order to get anything done. He was even targetted one time by a tax man for something he didn't do and ordered to pay several hundreds of thousands of reais or go to Jail...he ended up working out a bribe with the tax man where he paid him something to the tune of 50,000 grand.....

Sounds like a gringo urban myth. Did they happen to also threaten to steal his kidneys?

I might bark, but I don't bite.

(trolls, sock puppets, Brasil-bashers, and "Joined:Today" persons too lazy to use the Search function excluded; cry babies too)

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sven
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Posted: 19 June 2012 at 12:09

Originally posted by Gringo.Floripa

Sounds like a gringo urban myth. Did they happen to also threaten to steal his kidneys?

I have intact seen such things at work, 17 years ago. My friends where starting a business and asked for an Alvara of the prefeitura. The fiscal that checked the office out gave them two options, wait 6 months or pay R$ 1000. They complained to his boss who said "That' s the way things work here, if you don' t like it, go back to your country".

Remember, this was 17 years ago. Things have changed.

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Gringo.Floripa
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Posted: 19 June 2012 at 14:43

Originally posted by sven

I have intact seen such things at work, 17 years ago. My friends where starting a business and asked for an Alvara of the prefeitura. The fiscal that checked the office out gave them two options, wait 6 months or pay R$ 1000. They complained to his boss who said "That' s the way things work here, if you don' t like it, go back to your country".

Remember, this was 17 years ago. Things have changed.

One thousand reais to 'expedite' things seems reasonable. But 50K paid to the RF, as a bribe?!? Sorry... I'm sticking with the urban myth theory.

I might bark, but I don't bite.

(trolls, sock puppets, Brasil-bashers, and "Joined:Today" persons too lazy to use the Search function excluded; cry babies too)

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Escy
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Posted: 19 June 2012 at 15:21

A thousand reais 17 years ago would have been a considerable amount

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Gringo.Floripa
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Posted: 19 June 2012 at 15:57

The present Real was introduced 18 years ago, and the forex to USD was 1:1 (until 1999). One thousand reais/dollars 17 years ago wasn't a grand sum, but no doubt, it certainly bought more than it does today. Yet to shave six months off the waiting time of the burro-cracia, is really not unreasonable, merely a cost of 'doing business'. From what I've heard, people paid much more than R$1.000 to get a phone line installed more promptly, back in 'the old days'!

Edited by Gringo.Floripa - 19 June 2012 at 15:59

I might bark, but I don't bite.

(trolls, sock puppets, Brasil-bashers, and "Joined:Today" persons too lazy to use the Search function excluded; cry babies too)

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sven
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Posted: 19 June 2012 at 16:00

exactly, it was U$ 1000, but on the other hand it was 10 minimum wages...

50K is 100 minimum wages

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Escy
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Posted: 19 June 2012 at 16:37

My farther in-law has paid a R$4,000 bribe to speed up the purchase of some land. It's been 6 months so far and nothing sorted yet.

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Gringo.Floripa
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Posted: 19 June 2012 at 19:15

I can beat that! I paid some attorneys R$5.000 to 'help' me with the purchase of rural land. This payment was not a bribe, but a legit contract. After almost one year... and little results to show for the time and money (what few results they produced were often wrong ones!),
I finally pushed them aside, and began to do things myself. It was more work and aggravation for me to deal with the burro-cracia, but once I took the reins, the deal was done in no time!

It's been stated on here before... in Brasil, the only time you really need an attorney, is if you have to go before a judge. The rest of the time, you can probably figure it out yourself, accomplish your task more expeditiously, and while maybe more work for you, save yourself a nice chunk of change!

Edited by Gringo.Floripa - 19 June 2012 at 19:16

I might bark, but I don't bite.

(trolls, sock puppets, Brasil-bashers, and "Joined:Today" persons too lazy to use the Search function excluded; cry babies too)

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