Brazilian and foreign investors should pay attention to the taxation of capital gains on the sale of equity.
The capital gain realized by a legal entity domiciled abroad as a result of the sale of an equity in a Brazilian legal entity is subject to income tax, through the application of progressive rates of 15% (up to R$5 million), until the rate in the highest range of 22.5% on gains exceeding R$30 million.
Cases in which Brazil has treaties to avoid double taxation, the rate is a maximum of 15%, as for example with Portugal.
However, if the beneficiary legal entity is domiciled in a country or dependency with favored taxation (tax heaven), the taxation becomes 25%, such as, for example, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Hong Kong, among others.
On the other hand, the capital gain resulting from an investment made by a Brazilian legal entity must be taxed in accordance with the tax regime to which the Brazilian company is subject. It can be presumed profit or actual profit, in most cases.
If it is the presumed profit regime, the differentiation between permanent or temporary investment must still occur. This classification is not necessarily related to a term, but to the objective of the investment. It is temporary speculative investment in stocks, for example, whose objective is to benefit from the appreciation of the stock.
On the other hand, the investment is permanent, when it is not expected the income from the appreciation of these shares in the market, but the income produced by the operations of the investee company or by the operational improvement of the investing company.
