Setting up a business in Brazil can be confusing, even during the best of times. When the US government is shut down, it can limit your access to certain documents and procedures that you may need to be involved with in the US before you can set up your business in Brazil. Yet there are some things you can still do while you are waiting for the government shutdown to end.
Decide how you want to do business. Are you planning on moving to Brazil and opening a business that has a physical location, while you live there full time, or are you planning to invest in a business, and never, or only rarely, visit the location itself? How you go about setting up a business in Brazil, as well as how you plan to manage it once it is set up, can mean completely different things, as far as the type of visa you need (if any), the tax structure you need to set up, and the type of employees you need, if any. In some cases, you won’t need a visa or employees in Brazil, while other situations can call for full-time employees in Brazil, which means a whole other financial set up and tax structure.
Once the government does open back up, and a decision is made concerning the Affordable Care Act, your entire tax situation could change, so, while you are waiting for things to get settled, it is a good idea to review the various scenarios to see which might work best for you and your company.