grátis.

And I thought I had it bad in Germany (knew about brazilian already) with shipping + 19% import tax + 6€ import handling by DHL.

In these areas where bribes are so commonplace for all manner of interactions I just can't help but wonder how it goes on so long without anyone being desperate enough and wild enough to just pull a gun or a knife and basically say, "My bribe payment to you is just do your damn job and I let you live."

Or I guess maybe that does happen and then those people get disappeared.

From buying stuff from abroad in general. If it's imported, it can be taxed. Before Haddad (current economy minister), it was a gamble whether you'd be taxed or not, most of the time you weren't. Now, "to combat contraband", Aliexpress gave the thumbs up to this fucking stupid idea.

Brazil’s government heavily pushes for things to be made there. A place I worked several years ago had an office there for some final assembly or something for products sold there.

"Be happy about your horrible situation because there are more horrible situations out there" is such a shitty take.

Basically you're saying "unless you're the single most unfortunate person on the planet, maybe even throughout all of human history, you should be happy", which is obviously nonsense.

...I'm sure that dude that just got in charge will sort it out soon shudders

That is insane

Not even close.

Here in the US, I bought a used school bus to convert into a skoolie and I paid $3600 for it. To register it as a motorhome I had to pay a 6% tax, so $216 dollars, and that was it. I know of a few people in Europe who bought similarly-priced US buses and had them shipped over. For buses that cost around $4000, they had to pay that amount again for shipping and then double that amount for the various taxes and import fees, so a $4K bus cost them $15K to $20K.

Rio is nowhere as bad as half the rest of the territory in matters of extreme heat. Mato Grosso, Amazonia and Pará are frequently way worse, and also where the majority of illegal forest fires for land clearing happen.

Federal import tax, plus state tax based on the total value with the federal tax

Doesn't work in Brazil. Gifts cannot be sent from a business to a person, and even then there's a 50 USD limit.

My Pine64 order wasn't marked as a gift, and it turned up at my door completely untaxed 😳

Have you tried this trick before?