Bonded warehouse — storage with suspension of taxes on importation and exportation

What it is and how it works

The bonded warehouse is one of the special customs regimes of Brazilian foreign trade. Its hallmark is the suspension of the taxes: the goods are stored in a customs-controlled precinct, under the control of the Federal Revenue, and the demand of the taxes is deferred while they remain in the regime. On importation — the central side for importers and trading companies — the foreign goods are stored in a public-use customs-controlled precinct with the Import Duty (II), the IPI tied to importation, the PIS/Pasep-Importation and the Cofins-Importation suspended (art. 404 of the Customs Regulation).

In practice, the company admits the goods into the regime without collecting the taxes, may submit them to permitted operations (storage, exhibition and test, industrialization within limits, maintenance and repair) and, at the end, gives them a destination — as a rule, clearance for consumption (nationalization), when the suspended taxes are then paid. It is this that turns the warehouse into a cash-flow tool: the tax is paid only when (and if) the goods are sold, with the possibility of nationalizing in fractions according to demand. On exportation, the regime stores goods destined abroad and, under its extraordinary regime, anticipates the export-incentive tax benefits before shipment.

Terms and modalities

The term depends on the side of the operation. On importation, the goods may remain in the regime for up to one year, extendable to a total of two years (counted from the clearance of admission) and, in special situations, up to the maximum limit of three years (art. 408 of the Customs Regulation). On exportation, the term is one year extendable to two years under the common regime — with a possible new extension to three years — and 180 days under the extraordinary regime (art. 414 of the Customs Regulation; note that the provision on the export terms is art. 414, and not art. 415, which deals with the obligations at the expiry of the term).

The modalities are organized by the direction of the goods. On importation, the foreign goods are stored in a public-use precinct, with suspension of the federal taxes. On exportation, there is the common regime (public-use precinct, suspension of federal taxes, without anticipating benefits) and the extraordinary regime, operated by an export trading company incorporated in the form of art. 229 of the Customs Regulation (the trading company of Decree-Law 1.248/1972), in a private-use precinct, with the right to anticipate the export tax benefits (art. 411; Decree-Law 1.455/1976, art. 10). There is also the warehouse for the industrialization of petroleum and gas goods, governed by RFB Normative Instruction 513/2005.

Termination of the regime and distinctions that confuse

On importation, once the term of validity has ended, the goods must receive, within 45 days, one of the destinations of art. 409 of the Customs Regulation: clearance for consumption (nationalization, with collection of the suspended taxes), re-exportation, exportation or transfer to another regime. Once the term lapses without a destination, the goods are deemed abandoned and become subject to the forfeiture penalty — tried, since Law 14.651/2023, at the Center for the Adjudication of Customs Penalties (CEJUL), in two tiers and outside the CARF.

Three terms are often confused and are not synonyms. The customs precinct is the physical place (a dry port, an inland customs station, a port or airport area) where the operation occurs; the warehouse is the legal-tax regime applied to the goods — the precinct is the where, the warehouse is the how. The Certified Bonded Deposit (DAC), in turn, is another regime: it deems exported the domestic goods deposited and sold to a person based abroad, with a term of 12 months without extension (arts. 493-498 of the Customs Regulation; RFB Normative Instruction 266/2002). Under the Tax Reform, Complementary Law 214/2025 groups the warehouse in the deposit category (arts. 85-87), with suspension of IBS and CBS on importation, except for goods under a bonded deposit certificate.

The complete guide — the concept, the suspended taxes, the terms, the import and export modalities, the step by step from admission to termination and the difference from the DAC and the precinct — is in the cluster Bonded warehouse: what it is, how it works and terms.