When Paraguay Treats You as a Tax Resident
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Brazil on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
81 exceptions recorded across 33 countries · none match Brazil to Paraguay · When you become a tax resident
Paraguay does not decide individual tax residence by counting days. The regulation that defines the term says a natural person is resident for tax purposes if they hold permanent residency - a migration status, not a presence test - and it still does so by reference to Ley 978/1996, the migration law repealed by Ley 6984 in 2022. What follows from being resident is narrower than in most countries: personal income tax reaches Paraguayan-source income only, at 8, 9 or 10 per cent, and there is no charge at all on personal-service income below G 80,000,000 of gross receipts in the year. Non-residents are taxed at 15 per cent, withheld at source, on Paraguayan-source income.
At a glance
- Test for individual tax residence
- Holding permanent residency
Stated by Decreto N° 3181/2019 art. 2 and reproduced by the revenue authority; the decree still refers to the repealed Ley 978/1996
- Days-present test
- None found
Neither Ley 6380/2019 nor the decree nor the revenue authority's published answer on residence uses a day count for individuals
- What is taxed
- Paraguayan-source income only
- Personal income tax on services
- 8% up to G 50.000.000, 9% to G 150.000.000, 10% above
The brackets are article 69 of Ley N° 6380/2019 and are written in guaraníes: up to ₲ 50.000.000 at 8%, from ₲ 50.000.001 to ₲ 150.000.000 at 9%, and 10% at or above ₲ 150.000.001.
- No tax payable below
- G 80.000.000 of gross receipts from personal services in the fiscal year
Formal obligations still apply below the threshold; only the payment does not
- Non-resident income tax
- 15%
Withheld by the payer, who is jointly liable
- Fiscal year
- The calendar year
Requirements
- Permanent residency in Paraguay is the test the regulation states for individual tax residence
- Registration in the taxpayer register (RUC) once personal-service income passes the exempt threshold or capital income is obtained
- An annual return on the calendar year, with income counted when received and costs when actually incurred
- Tax on Paraguayan-source income only, whether you are resident or not
In detail
A status test, not a day count
Everywhere else in the region the question is how long you were in the country. Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia and Peru all work from presence, usually 183 days. Paraguay's regulation answers a different question: do you hold permanent residency. Under the current migration law permanent residency normally arrives two years after temporary residency, so the tax status is reached by completing a migration process rather than by accumulating days. We found nothing in the tax law, the regulation or the revenue authority's published answers that adds a presence test for individuals.
The definition points at a law that no longer exists
Decreto 3181/2019 defines the resident individual by reference to Ley N° 978/1996 and its amendments. Article 107 of Ley 6984/2022 repealed Ley 978/1996 outright - it was replaced, not amended - and the decree has not been rewritten. The revenue authority still publishes the sentence with the old citation. The sensible reading is that permanent residency under the law now in force is what is meant, but the mismatch is real and is the sort of thing worth having a professional opinion on before relying on it either way.
Territorial, in the law rather than by concession
Personal income tax reaches income from activities carried out in Paraguay, from assets situated there and from rights economically used there. The law adds specific extensions - interest on capital placed in the country, payments by the State, and services rendered abroad by a taxpayer of this tax to a Paraguayan business taxpayer - but foreign salary, foreign rent and foreign pensions are not in the list. This is a feature of the statute, so it does not need renewing and cannot lapse the way a special expatriate regime can.
What a non-resident pays
Not being resident does not mean not being taxed. The non-resident income tax applies at 15 per cent to Paraguayan-source income, on a deemed net income that depends on the type of payment, and it is withheld by whoever pays. A sale of Paraguayan real estate by a non-resident, for example, is taxed on a deemed net income of 30 per cent of the sale price excluding VAT.
Country-level policy
Ley N° 6984/2022 replaced the migration law Paraguay had used since 1996, and it changed the single thing the country is best known for. Permanent residency is no longer something a newcomer can be granted on arrival: temporary residency, granted for up to two years, is now a prerequisite for it, and the only exemptions are investors under the SUACE business regime and the foreign family of a repatriated Paraguayan. The old law was repealed outright rather than amended, so guidance written before October 2022 describes procedures that no longer exist - including, on the revenue authority's own pages, the definition of who counts as a tax resident.
Two different clocks, one of them made by the migration directorate rather than by the law. Permanent residency is lost after more than three years of unjustified absence, which is in the migration law itself. Temporary residency is cancelled after more than one year of absence without authorisation, which is not in the law at all: it comes from a 2026 directorate resolution that also sets up a procedure for asking permission to be away for longer. Cancellation is checked twice a year against the entry and exit register, and the directorate notifies the police, the Supreme Court and the revenue authority when it happens.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Brazil
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«En el caso de la persona física, se considerará Residente a los efectos fiscales a aquel que cuente con residencia permanente en el territorio de la República conforme a la Ley N° 978/96 «De Migraciones» y sus modificaciones.»Our translation - not official
In the case of a natural person, a Resident for tax purposes is one who holds permanent residency in the territory of the Republic under Law No. 978/96 on Migration and its amendments.
Two things matter here. The test is a migration status rather than a count of days, which is unlike every one of Paraguay's neighbours. And the migration law it points at, Ley 978/1996, was repealed outright by article 107 of Ley 6984/2022, so the reference now runs to an instrument that no longer exists. The revenue authority still publishes the sentence unchanged. The scanned decree on the same authority's site says the same words; it is quoted separately because its published scan loses accented characters.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The merged tax and customs authority. Publishes Ley 6380/2019 as HTML, implementing decrees as scanned PDFs, and a large taxpayer FAQ.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for migration status: its residence FAQ still defines residency by reference to Ley 978/96, repealed in 2022. It is authoritative on the tax consequences of a status, not on what the status is. Nothing on the site carries a revision date, so currency cannot be established from the page. Text extracted from its scanned decree PDFs loses accents and should not be quoted.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«En el caso de la persona fsica, se considerarÆ Residente a los efectos fiscales»Our translation - not official
In the case of a natural person, a Resident for tax purposes shall be considered to be...
The decree as published by the revenue authority is a scan, and the text extracted from it loses every accented character - fsica for física, considerarÆ for considerará. The quotation is kept exactly as the file reads so that it can be checked, and the readable wording of the same article is quoted above from the authority's own question-and-answer page.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The merged tax and customs authority. Publishes Ley 6380/2019 as HTML, implementing decrees as scanned PDFs, and a large taxpayer FAQ.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for migration status: its residence FAQ still defines residency by reference to Ley 978/96, repealed in 2022. It is authoritative on the tax consequences of a status, not on what the status is. Nothing on the site carries a revision date, so currency cannot be established from the page. Text extracted from its scanned decree PDFs loses accents and should not be quoted.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Serán contribuyentes las personas físicas nacionales o extranjeras, residentes en el territorio nacional.»Our translation - not official
Taxpayers shall be natural persons, whether nationals or foreigners, resident in the national territory.
The law makes residence the hinge of personal income tax and then never defines it for individuals - article 5 defines residence only for legal persons. The definition lives in the regulation quoted above.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The merged tax and customs authority. Publishes Ley 6380/2019 as HTML, implementing decrees as scanned PDFs, and a large taxpayer FAQ.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for migration status: its residence FAQ still defines residency by reference to Ley 978/96, repealed in 2022. It is authoritative on the tax consequences of a status, not on what the status is. Nothing on the site carries a revision date, so currency cannot be established from the page. Text extracted from its scanned decree PDFs loses accents and should not be quoted.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Estarán gravadas por este impuesto las rentas de fuente paraguaya previstas en el artículo anterior, provenientes de actividades desarrolladas en la República, de bienes situados o de derechos utilizados económicamente en la misma.»Our translation - not official
This tax shall apply to Paraguayan-source income as provided in the preceding article, arising from activities carried out in the Republic, from assets situated there or from rights economically used there.
Territoriality is in the law itself, not in a concession or a special regime, which is why it does not expire and is not conditional on an application.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The merged tax and customs authority. Publishes Ley 6380/2019 as HTML, implementing decrees as scanned PDFs, and a large taxpayer FAQ.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for migration status: its residence FAQ still defines residency by reference to Ley 978/96, repealed in 2022. It is authoritative on the tax consequences of a status, not on what the status is. Nothing on the site carries a revision date, so currency cannot be established from the page. Text extracted from its scanned decree PDFs loses accents and should not be quoted.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Hasta ₲ 50.000.000 | 8%»Our translation - not official
Up to ₲ 50,000,000 | 8%
The first band of the progressive scale on net income from personal services. The next band runs to ₲ 150.000.000 at 9% and anything at or above ₲ 150.000.001 is taxed at 10%.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The merged tax and customs authority. Publishes Ley 6380/2019 as HTML, implementing decrees as scanned PDFs, and a large taxpayer FAQ.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for migration status: its residence FAQ still defines residency by reference to Ley 978/96, repealed in 2022. It is authoritative on the tax consequences of a status, not on what the status is. Nothing on the site carries a revision date, so currency cannot be established from the page. Text extracted from its scanned decree PDFs loses accents and should not be quoted.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«En caso de que los ingresos brutos del contribuyente provenientes de la prestación de servicios personales no superen G. 80.000.000 (ochenta millones de guaraníes) en el ejercicio fiscal, el mismo deberá cumplir las obligaciones formales del impuesto conforme lo establezca la reglamentación, pero no estará obligado al pago del impuesto.»Our translation - not official
Where the taxpayer's gross income from the provision of personal services does not exceed G. 80,000,000 (eighty million guaranies) in the fiscal year, they must comply with the formal obligations of the tax as laid down by regulation, but shall not be obliged to pay the tax.
The relief is from payment, not from filing. The article uses gross receipts for the threshold and net income for the rate bands, which are not the same measure.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The merged tax and customs authority. Publishes Ley 6380/2019 as HTML, implementing decrees as scanned PDFs, and a large taxpayer FAQ.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for migration status: its residence FAQ still defines residency by reference to Ley 978/96, repealed in 2022. It is authoritative on the tax consequences of a status, not on what the status is. Nothing on the site carries a revision date, so currency cannot be established from the page. Text extracted from its scanned decree PDFs loses accents and should not be quoted.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«La tasa del INR será del 15% (quince por ciento).»Our translation - not official
The rate of the non-resident income tax shall be 15% (fifteen per cent).
Applied to a deemed net income that varies by type of payment, and withheld by the Paraguayan payer, who is jointly and severally liable for it.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The merged tax and customs authority. Publishes Ley 6380/2019 as HTML, implementing decrees as scanned PDFs, and a large taxpayer FAQ.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for migration status: its residence FAQ still defines residency by reference to Ley 978/96, repealed in 2022. It is authoritative on the tax consequences of a status, not on what the status is. Nothing on the site carries a revision date, so currency cannot be established from the page. Text extracted from its scanned decree PDFs loses accents and should not be quoted.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Desde ₲ 50.000.001 hasta ₲ 150.000.000 | 9%»Our translation - not official
From ₲ 50,000,001 to ₲ 150,000,000 | 9%
The second band of the scale, quoted as a row.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The merged tax and customs authority. Publishes Ley 6380/2019 as HTML, implementing decrees as scanned PDFs, and a large taxpayer FAQ.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for migration status: its residence FAQ still defines residency by reference to Ley 978/96, repealed in 2022. It is authoritative on the tax consequences of a status, not on what the status is. Nothing on the site carries a revision date, so currency cannot be established from the page. Text extracted from its scanned decree PDFs loses accents and should not be quoted.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Igual o mayor a ₲ 150.000.001 | 10%»Our translation - not official
Equal to or greater than ₲ 150,000,001 | 10%
The top band. Ten per cent is the highest rate an individual pays on personal-service income.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The merged tax and customs authority. Publishes Ley 6380/2019 as HTML, implementing decrees as scanned PDFs, and a large taxpayer FAQ.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for migration status: its residence FAQ still defines residency by reference to Ley 978/96, repealed in 2022. It is authoritative on the tax consequences of a status, not on what the status is. Nothing on the site carries a revision date, so currency cannot be established from the page. Text extracted from its scanned decree PDFs loses accents and should not be quoted.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Read literally, someone holding temporary residency is not a tax resident under the regulation. We found no revenue-authority guidance addressing temporary residents at all, and nothing here should be read as a plan; it is a gap in what the authority has published.
The migration directorate notifies the revenue authority when it cancels a residency, so the two registers are connected in practice as well as in the text.
We did not find a published procedure for obtaining a certificate of tax residence, and we did not read Paraguay's double-taxation treaties. Anyone who needs to prove residence to another country should not assume the migration card does it.
The scanned copy of Decreto 3181/2019 on the revenue authority's own site is the only version of that instrument we located on a government domain, and the text extracted from it loses accented characters. The readable wording used on this page comes from the same authority's question-and-answer page, which cites article 2 of the decree.
- administersLey N° 6380/2019 de Modernización y Simplificación del Sistema Tributario Nacional
Dirección Nacional de Ingresos Tributarios (Paraguay)
About this source
The merged tax and customs authority. Publishes Ley 6380/2019 as HTML, implementing decrees as scanned PDFs, and a large taxpayer FAQ.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for migration status: its residence FAQ still defines residency by reference to Ley 978/96, repealed in 2022. It is authoritative on the tax consequences of a status, not on what the status is. Nothing on the site carries a revision date, so currency cannot be established from the page. Text extracted from its scanned decree PDFs loses accents and should not be quoted.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- administersPreguntas Frecuentes - Dirección Nacional de Ingresos Tributarios
Dirección Nacional de Ingresos Tributarios (Paraguay)
About this source
The merged tax and customs authority. Publishes Ley 6380/2019 as HTML, implementing decrees as scanned PDFs, and a large taxpayer FAQ.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for migration status: its residence FAQ still defines residency by reference to Ley 978/96, repealed in 2022. It is authoritative on the tax consequences of a status, not on what the status is. Nothing on the site carries a revision date, so currency cannot be established from the page. Text extracted from its scanned decree PDFs loses accents and should not be quoted.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- administersDecreto N° 3181/2019, por el cual se reglamenta el Impuesto a la Renta de No Residentes
Dirección Nacional de Ingresos Tributarios (Paraguay)
About this source
The merged tax and customs authority. Publishes Ley 6380/2019 as HTML, implementing decrees as scanned PDFs, and a large taxpayer FAQ.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Cannot be cited for migration status: its residence FAQ still defines residency by reference to Ley 978/96, repealed in 2022. It is authoritative on the tax consequences of a status, not on what the status is. Nothing on the site carries a revision date, so currency cannot be established from the page. Text extracted from its scanned decree PDFs loses accents and should not be quoted.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- administersLey N° 6.984 de Migraciones (texto publicado por la Dirección Nacional de Migraciones)
Dirección Nacional de Migraciones (Paraguay)
About this source
The migration directorate. Administers residency under Ley 6984/2022 and issues its own resolutions under arts. 78, 79 and 82. Publishes the law as a PDF booklet, per-route requirement pages, the migration fee schedule and a resolutions index.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: Not the gazette: it reproduces Ley 6984 but did not make it. Its requirement pages restate the law and sometimes diverge from it - art. 100's fee figures against the schedule in force is the live example, and the schedule wins. Cannot be cited for the SUACE investor threshold, which is the industry ministry's, nor for the tax consequences of a migration status. The law booklet is a justified-column PDF, so extracted text breaks words across lines.
We re-read it every 30 days. More about this source