Procure and Retrieve Laptops in Brazil, Without a Local Entity
A laptop couriered into Brazil picks up a 60% federal import duty on top of its declared value, with state ICMS charged on the marked-up total. Customs can also hold a device that's missing wireless or power certification. Workwize buys the same machine from suppliers already inside Brazil, delivers it configured and ready to use within 7 days, and retrieves it when the employee leaves.
Shipping a laptop from HQ into Brazil costs far more than the laptop
Brazil taxes imported hardware at the border and checks it for certification before releasing it. A device sent by courier falls under Receita Federal's simplified import regime, which applies a steep flat-rate duty on top of the item's declared value. State ICMS, Brazil's VAT, is then charged on top of that already-inflated total.
A foreign company with no Brazilian tax registration has no way to recover either charge, so the full cost lands on your IT budget. On top of the tax bill, the device has to clear the relevant wireless and electrical safety certifications before customs will release it. That combination of cost and paperwork is why most global employers buy inside the country instead.
If you have ever handed a courier a sealed MacBook addressed to a new engineer in Florianópolis, you already know how this goes:
- A 60% duty, and then tax on the tax: The duty is charged on customs value, which includes freight and insurance rather than the price of the machine alone. State ICMS of roughly 17% to 20% is then applied to a base that already contains the duty, so the two charges compound. On a mid-spec laptop, the tax bill can exceed the purchase price.
- Different certifications to pass: ANATEL homologation covers anything that transmits over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. INMETRO certification covers the power adapter separately. Miss either and the device can be held or rejected at customs. Machines sold at retail inside Brazil already carry both.
- Paperwork that scales with the invoice: Shipments with a customs value up to US$3,000 are subject to the simplified regime. Anything above that threshold requires formal clearance through SISCOMEX and a licensed customs broker, which brings a commercial invoice, a bill of lading, a certificate of origin, and technical specifications into play for every unit.
- The return trip rarely happens: Sending a device back out of Brazil means an export declaration and a broker for an asset that has already lost half its value. The laptop stays at the former employee's home, still enrolled in your MDM, still on your books as an asset you cannot see.
| Factor | DIY / regional MSPs | Outsourcing to Workwize |
|---|---|---|
| Import authorization /certification | ANATEL certification required for wireless devices, plus formal clearance for shipments above US$3,000 | Not needed. Devices are bought inside Brazil and already carry both certifications |
| Tax treatment | 60% import duty plus state ICMS, non-recoverable for a foreign company without Brazilian tax registration | Local invoicing in one currency, with Brazilian tax handled by the supplier and billing consolidated for your finance team |
| Delivery time | Days to weeks and any documentation gap extends the delivery timeline | 2 to 7 days from local stock |
| Device retrieval | Export declaration and broker required. Most companies write the device off | Scheduled pickup at any Brazilian address, certified wipe, local storage for the next hire |
| Compliance | LGPD and e-waste obligations are with your company | Device certification and disposal handled through certified local partners. LGPD data governance stays yours, backed by audit-ready records |
How Does It Work?
One platform for IT teams to manage the entire laptop lifecycle in Brazil, powered by automated workflows.
- One operations partner across 100+ countries
- One source of truth across multiple vendors
- One process from purchase to recovery
Procure
Buy or lease from our network of suppliers inside Brazil. Because the device never enters the country, neither the duty nor the homologation question applies.
Dispose
End of life runs through certified recyclers under Brazil's National Solid Waste Policy (Law 12,305/2010), which places reverse logistics duties on importers and distributors, with resale available where the device still holds value.
Deploy
Devices leave our local warehouses already enrolled in your MDM, whether that is Apple Business Manager, Windows Autopilot, or your own build. They reach any Brazilian address within days.
Retrieve
On offboarding, we book a pickup at the employee's address, wipe the drive to certified standards, and hold the device in Brazil for your next hire.
Manage
Track repairs and replacements from a single dashboard. If a machine fails, a replacement ships from local stock while the original goes in for service.
Does This Sound Familiar?
Logistical complexities
Certification checks and customs holds land on every shipment you send into Brazil. Meanwhile, your nearshore hiring plan keeps outpacing your ability to source and configure the next batch of machines.
Compliance risks
Every device you put into Brazil carries LGPD obligations for the data on it and reverse logistics duties at end of life. Certification requirements sit on you as well, with no single system tracking any of it.
Juggling multiple vendor relationships
Your EOR handles payroll and stops at hardware. That leaves you managing an import agent and a local repair shop yourself, then finding someone else to collect the device when the employee leaves.
Compatibility issues
ABNT2 keyboards and Brazil's split supply of 127V and 220V mean a machine ordered from HQ is often not one your Brazilian team can comfortably use.
Invoicing hassles
Invoices arrive in BRL while ICMS changes from state to state, and import duty gets calculated on top of both. Finance then reconciles all of it against whatever currency your other vendors bill in.
Administrative burden
Reimbursed devices show up in whatever spec the employee chose and skip MDM enrollment entirely. Ownership gets murky once the expense is paid, which leaves manual entry as the only way anything gets tracked.
How Workwize Solves These Challenges?
Local sourcing, delivered in 2 to 7 days
Devices ship from Brazilian stock with homologation already in place, so there is no duty, no ICMS at the border, and no clearance queue.
Tax-compliant, consolidated invoicing
Brazilian tax is handled at the point of purchase and billed to you in a single currency, which removes the reconciliation work from your finance team.
A self-service portal for new hires
Employees choose from the catalog you approve, and every order registers as a tracked asset from the day it ships.
MDM-ready on arrival
Apple Business Manager, Windows Autopilot, and 70+ HRIS integrations mean a signed offer in your HR system can trigger the device order automatically.
Retrieval anywhere in Brazil
We schedule the pickup, wipe the drive, and store the machine locally so it can go straight to your next hire instead of leaving the country.
Shipping options that fit the person
Send a device to a home address in any Brazilian state or straight to your office, and hold spare stock in local storage between hires so the next order ships the same week.
What our customers
say about us
Love Workwize!
It has been wonderful, I have enjoyed a lot of it. Using the site is super easy with not many problems associated and has overall relieved a lot of stress with onboarding offboarding that we experienced prior to using Workwize.
Jake S.
IT Analyst
Great service
Overall it's been great, from the nice initial demos and sales experience to onboarding. Initial orders did have some issues, but I felt looked after by the team there, and they were doing everything they could to help at every point.
Mark K.
Head Of IT and InfoSec
A Niche Company which meets our needs perfectly
Has been really good overall. We searched for a long time for a suitable solution and they were just the fit. Nice to see how they have grown in terms of size and service provisions and be part of it from the start. Super user-friendly platform.
Ilan B.
Benefits Team Leader
Global onboarding is easier. Managing IT logistics for global hires was very hard before. Workwize solved that for us. Now our new employees are ready on day one with everything they need to work comfortably.
Robert Jones
SR. IT Manager
We are already seeing fruits of our labor, since nearly all our new assets are now ordered via Workwize and IT Team has drastically reduced time which was wasted on procuring the assets and its setup.
Ana Lovsin
IT Operations Manager at Swapfiets
How HighLevel saves $1.4M per year with Workwize
HighLevel ran IT hardware through separate managed service providers in each region until Workwize replaced them with one platform.
- Regional providers left the IT team waiting up to 18 hours for a reply across time zones, and orders that arrived late meant new hires started without a laptop.
- A curated catalog and self-service portal now keep specs consistent from the US through to the Philippines, with employees ordering their own equipment.
- The switch returned 24.5 times the yearly investment and cut 70% of the time the team spent on IT equipment operations.
Fully compatible with your tech stack
Integrate Workwize with your existing MDM, HR, and payroll systems to streamline your IT operations.
- Use our API to integrate your own systems.
- Enroll Apple Business Manager or Windows Autopilot.
- Sync with your HR system to avoid duplication of work.
Why choose Workwize?
Differentiation on many levels.
- with Workwize
- without workwize
- Full IT hardware lifecycle coverage
- Yes
- No
- Automated on- & offboarding
- Yes
- No
- Natural language workflow builder for procurement, onboarding, offboarding & IT ops
- Yes
- No
- Zero-touch IT management
- Yes
- No
- Global stock delivery within 7 days
- Yes
- No
- Comprehensive asset management
- Yes
- No
- IT hardware repair services
- Yes
- No
- Ship to any location (office, home, storage)
- Yes
- No
- Slack & MS Teams notification integrations
- Yes
- No
- Custom data reports
- Yes
- No
One Platform, Easy Pricing
Workwize customers report up to 70% less manual IT work and a 24x ROI.
Basic
What's included:
- Automated asset management
- 3 regions
- Single Sign-On (SSO)
- Monitor repair status in real-time.
- Pickup, storage, and shipping
- 100+ HRIS integrations
- Repair and replacement
Professional
What's included:
- Everything in Basic
- 5 regions
- Automatic offboarding
- Automatic deployment
- Automatic restocking
- Enhanced scalability
Enterprise
What's included:
- Everything in Professional
- Unlimited regions
- SCIM integration
- Public API for custom integrations
- Tailored onboarding and support
Quick facts for managing laptop procurement in Brazil
Integrate Workwize with your existing MDM, HR, and payroll systems—streamlining your IT operations.
- Keyboard layout: ABNT2 (Brazilian Portuguese), specified in standards ABNT NBR 10346 variant 2 and NBR 10347.
- Power plug: Type N, defined by standard NBR 14136 and adopted as the national standard in 2007, with compliance mandatory from 2010. Type C two-pin plugs also fit the socket.
- Voltage: 127V or 220V at 60Hz, depending on the region. São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro run on 127V, while Brasília and much of the North and Northeast run on 220V.
- Import status: Laptops imported by courier fall under Receita Federal's simplified regime up to a customs value of US$3,000. Above that, formal clearance through SISCOMEX with a licensed customs broker is required.
- Tax: 60% federal import duty on courier shipments valued between US$50 and US$3,000, calculated on customs value including freight and insurance. State ICMS of roughly 17% to 20% is charged on top and varies by state.
- Data protection: LGPD (Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados), Brazil's GDPR equivalent, enforced by the ANPD.
- E-waste: National Solid Waste Policy (Law 12,305/2010), which places reverse logistics obligations on manufacturers, importers, distributors, and retailers.
- Standard OS language: Brazilian Portuguese.
FAQ
Quick insights on our operations and services offered.
Yes, but importing a laptop into Brazil can involve customs duties, taxes and documentation requirements that make international shipping more complex and expensive than local procurement. Workwize sources devices locally in Brazil, helping companies avoid unnecessary cross-border shipping for employee hardware.
Laptops with wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth may be subject to ANATEL homologation requirements in Brazil. Sourcing approved devices locally can simplify procurement because hardware sold for the Brazilian market is already intended to meet applicable local requirements.
There is no single clearance time for laptop shipments into Brazil. Timing depends on factors such as the shipment value, documentation, import process and whether customs requires additional review. For companies that want to avoid that uncertainty, Workwize can source employee devices locally in Brazil instead of shipping them internationally.
With Workwize, you can initiate the device return as part of your offboarding workflow. Returned equipment can be securely wiped and prepared for storage, redeployment, resale or responsible disposal, depending on its condition and your next step for the asset.
Yes. Existing devices can be added to Workwize so your IT team can manage them alongside newly procured hardware from one platform.
Yes. Workwize can manage hardware repair requests in Brazil, helping IT teams coordinate faulty devices without finding and managing a separate repair provider.
Elevate your onboarding and offboarding processes with Workwize
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