Redata Brazil: how to import data center equipment under the new tax regime

Redata Brazil is a special federal tax regime, created by Law No. 15,504 of September 15, 2026, that suspends Import Duty, IPI, PIS/Cofins and PIS/Cofins-Importação on IT equipment bought for enrolled data centers. The suspension becomes a zero rate once the operator meets commitments on renewable energy, water use, research investment and domestic capacity.

For anyone planning a data center in Brazil, that is a large change. Brazil charges several import taxes on top of each other, and on a hall full of GPU servers, switches and storage they add up to a big share of the project budget. Redata removes most of the federal part of that bill, but only for companies that qualify, only for listed goods, and, for some taxes, only for a short window.

This guide explains what Redata Brazil covers, who can use it, why December 31, 2026 matters so much, how an import under the regime works at customs, how it compares with the Ex-tarifário and a regular import, and where an Importer of Record fits into a project that wants to use it. If you are new to Brazilian import rules, our guide to importing IT equipment into Brazil covers the basics this article builds on.

What is Redata Brazil, and what does it change for data center imports?

Redata, short for Regime Especial de Tributação para Serviços de Datacenter, is a tax regime for companies that provide data center services in Brazil. It suspends federal taxes on the electronic components and other IT and communications products that go into the fixed assets of an enrolled data center, whether bought in Brazil or imported.

The regime was first introduced by Provisional Measure No. 1,318 of September 2025. That measure lapsed in February 2026 because Congress did not convert it into law in time, so the government sent the same idea back as a bill, PL 278/2026. Congress approved it in September, and it became Law No. 15,504/2026, which adds the Redata articles to Law No. 11,196/2005, better known in Brazil as the Lei do Bem. The new rules sit in articles 11-A to 11-J of that law.

The services covered are broad: storage, processing and management of data, cloud computing, high-performance computing and the training and inference of artificial intelligence models, among others the Executive may define. In practice, that includes colocation and hyperscale operators, cloud providers and companies building AI clusters in Brazil.

For importers, the key word is fixed assets. Redata does not make all hardware entering Brazil cheaper. It applies to equipment that becomes part of the fixed assets (ativo imobilizado) of a company enrolled in the regime. A distributor bringing in servers to resell, or a foreign vendor shipping a few units to a customer that is not enrolled, is outside the regime.

Which taxes does Redata suspend on imported equipment?

Article 11-C of the law suspends four federal taxes: PIS/Pasep and Cofins on domestic sales, PIS/Pasep-Importação and Cofins-Importação on imports, IPI on imports and on products leaving the factory, and the Import Duty. The suspension turns into a zero rate after the enrolled company meets its commitments.

Each tax has its own conditions. The Import Duty suspension only applies to goods without equivalent national production that appear on a list published by the federal Executive. The final text of the law speaks of "produção nacional equivalente" rather than the older idea of a "national similar", which leaves room for the regulation to weigh technology, volume, delivery time and commercial terms. The IPI suspension does not apply to electronic and IT products made in the Manaus Free Trade Zone that the Executive lists. And none of the four covers ICMS, the state tax charged at clearance, because Redata is a federal regime and cannot waive state taxes.

The size of the relief depends on the product mix. PIS and Cofins on imports have general rates of 2.1% and 9.65% under Law No. 10,865/2004, and the Import Duty and IPI depend on the NCM code of each item. For a project with thousands of servers, accelerators and network components, suspending those lines can change the landed cost of the whole build. If you still need to settle the NCM codes, our guide on the HS code for servers explains how servers, GPUs and switches are usually classified.

Who can use Redata, and what must the data center commit to?

Redata is open to companies that provide data center services in Brazil and are enrolled by the Receita Federal, the federal tax authority under the Ministry of Finance. They must be up to date with federal taxes, must not be on the Cadin list of public debtors and cannot be taxed under the Simples Nacional regime.

Enrollment comes with commitments listed in article 11-B. The company must make at least 10% of its effective processing, storage and data handling capacity available to the domestic market. It must meet all of its electricity demand with renewable or low-emission sources, through supply contracts or self-generation. It must keep a Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) of 0.05 litres per kWh or lower, measured every year. It must invest 2% of the value of the products bought or imported under the regime in research, development and innovation programs in Brazil, in partnership with research institutions, universities, certain public funds or qualified social organizations. And it must follow sustainability criteria and publish reports on its environmental indicators.

Location changes the numbers. For facilities in the North, Northeast and Center-West regions, the domestic-capacity and research commitments are reduced by 20%, which brings them to 8% and 1.6%. The law also lets the 10% domestic-capacity commitment be replaced by an extra investment of 10% in research programs, and it requires at least 40% of the research money to go to projects in those three regions.

Suppliers have a route too. A manufacturer of IT and communications products can apply for co-enrollment (coabilitação) when it has a contract to supply products for incorporation into the fixed assets of an enrolled company. Co-enrollment lasts as long as that supply contract and lets the domestic sale also benefit from the suspension.

Why does December 31, 2026 matter so much?

Because the law gives the four tax benefits different lives. Article 11-J sets a five-year term for the benefits in article 11-C, but its sole paragraph says the PIS/Cofins, PIS/Cofins-Importação and IPI suspensions only produce effects until December 31, 2026, in line with Brazil's tax reform. After that date, only the Import Duty suspension clearly remains.

The reason is the tax reform under Constitutional Amendment No. 132/2023 and Complementary Law No. 214/2025. PIS and Cofins are being replaced by the new federal contribution on goods and services, the CBS, from 2027, and the IPI is expected to fall to zero for most products, except those with a counterpart made in the Manaus Free Trade Zone. Law No. 15,504 does not say how Redata will interact with the CBS or the state and municipal IBS, so advisers in Brazil read the window for the federal relief on PIS, Cofins and IPI as very short.

There is a second problem. The regime does not work without a decree. The procedures for enrollment and co-enrollment, the list of eligible goods, the criteria for equivalent national production and the rules for proving renewable energy and water efficiency all depend on Executive regulation. As of late October 2026, industry associations were still publicly asking the government to issue that regulation before the end of the year. Until it exists, no company can be enrolled, and no import can be declared under Redata.

For a project team, that means two plans. One assumes the regulation arrives in time and the first shipments clear under the full regime before December 31. The other assumes they do not, and keeps only the Import Duty suspension, or an Ex-tarifário, in the business case for 2027 and beyond.

How does an import under Redata actually work at customs?

Once the regulation is in place, an enrolled company imports the listed equipment through the normal Brazilian process, registers the declaration in the Portal Único Siscomex and claims the suspension for each eligible item. Customs checks the enrollment, the classification and the destination of the goods, and the taxes stay suspended instead of being paid.

The importer still needs everything a regular import requires: a Brazilian legal entity with an active Radar qualification in Siscomex, a customs broker, correct NCM codes, a commercial invoice and packing list that match the product catalog, and, for anything with radio functions, Anatel homologation. Redata does not replace any of that. It also does not change the rules for used equipment, which still need a non-automatic import license from Decex, so refurbished servers are a separate discussion.

What changes is the evidence trail. Suspended taxes are a liability until the commitments are met, so the importer has to link each imported item to the enrolled company's fixed assets and to the project that justified the suspension. Article 11-F allows goods bought under suspension to be sold to companies outside the regime, but only after the suspended taxes and the normal taxes on the sale are paid. Serial numbers, asset tags and installation records become part of the tax file, not just the operations file.

Two points remain open until the regulation is published. The first is the eligible goods list, which will define which components, servers, network equipment and infrastructure items qualify. The second is whether imports through a trading company on behalf of the enrolled company, the "por conta e ordem" model, will be accepted. Brazilian practice in other special regimes varies, so any structure should be confirmed against the decree before the first shipment.

Redata, Ex-tarifário or a regular import: which one fits your project?

It depends on who owns the equipment, what it is and when it arrives. Redata gives the widest federal relief, but only to enrolled data center operators and only for listed goods. The Ex-tarifário reduces only the Import Duty, for any importer of the approved model. A regular import is the fallback when neither applies.

The Ex-tarifário regime, managed by the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services, temporarily reduces the Import Duty on capital goods (BK) and IT and telecom goods (BIT) without equivalent national production. It is tied to the product description, not to the importer, so a vendor, a trading company or an end user can use it once the "ex" is published. It does not touch IPI, PIS, Cofins or ICMS.

For many projects the answer is a mix. The data center operator enrolls in Redata for the core build, a supplier co-enrolls for locally assembled equipment, and items that fall outside the eligible list still enter under an Ex-tarifário or at normal rates. The landed cost model should show each line under each scenario, including the 2027 changes, before the purchase orders are placed. Our guide to data center equipment import covers the logistics side of the same build, from UPS and cooling to racks.

What happens if the commitments are not met?

The suspended taxes come back. If an enrolled or co-enrolled company fails its commitments, it must pay the taxes that were suspended, with interest and late-payment fines, and the Receita Federal can assess them ex officio if they are not paid.

The domestic-capacity commitment has its own procedure under article 11-H. A company that fails to offer the required share of capacity to the Brazilian market first has its benefits suspended for new purchases. If it does not fix the problem within 180 days of being notified, the suspension becomes a cancellation of its enrollment. An appeal does not stop either step.

That is why Redata is a compliance project as much as a tax benefit. The energy contracts, the WUE measurements, the research agreements and the capacity reports have to be in place and documented for years after the hardware has cleared customs. A team that treats the regime only as a customs discount at the airport tends to discover the cost later.

How an Importer of Record fits into a Redata project

An Importer of Record helps most where the data center operator is not ready to import on its own: before its Brazilian entity has a Radar, before its customs team exists, or when the project mixes Redata goods with equipment that does not qualify. The aim is to keep each item in the right regime with the right documents.

In a typical project, the foreign group or vendor is in charge of the hardware, the Brazilian operator is in charge of the enrollment, and nobody is in charge of the space between them. The Importer of Record closes that gap. It checks the NCM codes against the eligible goods list, confirms which items fall under Redata, Ex-tarifário or a normal import, prepares the documents that tie each serial number to the enrolled company's fixed assets, and coordinates the broker, Anatel and the logistics so the shipments arrive when the build needs them. Where the regulation requires the enrolled company itself to appear as importer, the Importer of Record role shifts to running the import process for that company and handling the equipment outside the regime. If the concept is new to you, our explainer on what an Importer of Record does sets out the basics.

The timing makes this urgent. With the PIS, Cofins and IPI relief tied to December 31, 2026, and the regulation still pending, the projects that benefit will be the ones whose classification, documents and import structure are ready the day the decree comes out.

If you are planning servers, accelerators, network gear or power and cooling equipment for a data center in Brazil, tell us what you are shipping and when the site needs it. The Comex IOR Services team will review the equipment against the Redata rules, model the landed cost with and without the regime, and tell you honestly whether working with an Importer of Record in Brazil for data center projects makes sense for your build.