Brazil

Firm overview

Our tax department is split between Rio and São Paulo, being able to strategically cover the entire country.

Our Rio de Janeiro office has noteworthy expertise in the luxury and oil and gas sectors.

We are particularly strong in handling middle-market transactions.

We provide partner-led advice from the beginning to the end of all work to all our clients.

Our clients come from a wide range of sectors, including insurance, oil and gas, perfumes and cosmetics, marketing, technology, wholesale, finance services and health care.

We provide the full array of tax services, however, the bulk of our workload encompasses M&A transactions, litigation, due diligence and restructuring, as well as day-to-day advice. 

We have recently worked in cross-border M&A transactions involving the USA and Europe. Those deals involved American and European companies looking to expand their operations in Brazil.

Despite the Brazilian economic crisis, the tax department had significant growth in 2018 in terms of members and clients.

Finally, Viseu Advogados has been consolidated with one of the main important law firms in the cosmetic industry, attending companies in all the supply chain, such as Provital (raw materials), Boticário and Coty (manufacturers/wholesalers), Limelife by Alcone (door-to-door), and Sephora (retail). Also, it is important to mention that the cosmetic industry is one of the most taxed sectors in Brazil, which means that attending those clients is a very important reference that Viseu Advogados is performing a well-recognized work.

Firm overview

PFM Associados is focused on listening and adding value to its clients, offering a range of services with a single objective: to achieve results that exceed expectations.

Our purpose is to listen and fully understand our clients' problems and issues, to deal and implement technology tools that can be predictive, while also helping to manage compliance issues, reporting and filing costs. We aim to provide a seamless level of client service by adopting an innovative approach, proposing alternatives that effectively add value.

Our vison is to deliver added value through a concise and pragmatic approach, to be seen as a reliable alternative that is always open to listen and learn from our clients.

The firm has four brand pillars that form the base of all its actions and define its culture. They are the way by which the firm acts with each other and with clients.

Excellence - To practice the highest professional standards and to provide a seamless experience when interacting with clients, professionals, partners and the business community. We are committed to excellence in every activity we engage in and service that we provide.

Ethical Behavior and Integrity - Always act with ethics and integrity in all our services, decisions, negotiations, communications, market positioning and everything else we do.

Mutual Commitment - Focus on developing and nurturing a genuine collaboration spirit among our work groups, professional practices and leaders.

Diversity - Key element to embrace new ideas, promote innovation, develop our people, build our brand and have a relevant role in our community. Professional growth is based on merit, personal commitment and effective contribution to our clients and to the firm.

Firm overview

Numeris is a multidisciplinary consulting firm specialized in tax and financial consulting services. Its team is composed of professionals with educational background and work experience in both legal and financial matters, aiming to provide services grounded on a solid knowledge in its client’s sectors, operations and financial strategies.

Firm overview

Castro Barros' tax practice is very active not only in domestic and international consultancy and planning for clients, but also in administrative and judicial litigation, including participation in relevant cases heard by the higher administrative and judicial courts.

The tax consulting and tax planning practice consists of assistance to domestic and foreign companies in determining the taxes and other levies that directly and indirectly influence their activities, considering the specificities of the fiscal regimes applicable to each segment of the economy.

It also provides assistance to Brazilian and foreign individuals in all matters related to income tax, including reviewing capital gains and income tax returns.

Because of its tradition of working with multinationals, the tax department of Castro Barros has extensive experience with international taxation, cross-border transactions, multilateral tax treaties and structuring of investments and operations, the tax aspects of importing and exporting products and services, including preferential tariff treatment under international agreements, customs valuation, special customs regimes and systems, tax classification and transfer pricing.

The department is also very active in strategic tax litigation in the administrative and judicial spheres, acting in all instances and spheres (municipal, state and federal), and currently handles approximately 3,000 judicial and administrative tax cases, in all Brazilian states.

Our office in Brasília enables Castro Barros to have presence in the highest judicial and administrative courts and follow the leading cases related to the main tax issues currently under discussion.

Firm overview

Ulhôa Canto was founded 60 years ago (in 1959) and is directly connected to the roots of tax law in Brazil. Its founding Partner, Gilberto de Ulhôa Canto, was one of the scholars to whom was commissioned the draft bill of what later became the Brazilian National Tax Code, which is still in force. Hence, Tax is the backbone of the Firm, from which other areas of business law later developed.

Not only does this feature differentiate ULHÔA CANTO from many of the other ranked Brazilian firms, but also makes Tax more than a mere department within the Firm. Indeed, our Tax practice is very broad and is conducted by a large number of partners, all of whom having developed their careers within the ranks of the Firm. In addition, these partners carry out business in an integrated fashion within sub-areas representing specific activities and types of taxes (Advisory, Administrative Litigation and Judicial Litigation, for taxes at the Federal, State and Municipal levels).

In this context, ULHÔA CANTO’s Tax team comprises 16 partners, many of them having a multidisciplinary background.

Our Firm remains as one of the key references in Tax Law in Brazil, participating in significant transactions in several business sectors and representing clients in highly complex issues before all the administrative and judicial court levels. As a business strategy, we focus on complex tax matters rather than the day-to-day activities of our clients, who usually seek us to deal with their most relevant tax issues.

Our clients do business in a wide range of sectors. In the past 12 months, the Firm has experienced growth in the Banking & Financial Services, Private Clients and Food & Drink sectors.

Firm overview