The business register in Brazil is the Registro Público de Empresas Mercantis e Atividades Afins (Public Registry of Mercantile Enterprises and Related Activities), operated by the twenty-seven state Juntas Comerciais (Commercial Registries) and supervised technically by the DREI — Departamento Nacional de Registro Empresarial e Integração (National Department of Business Registration and Integration). Registration runs through the integrated Redesim process, and every registered entity also holds a CNPJ (National Registry of Legal Entities number) issued by the federal tax authority, whose data are freely consultable online.

The company registry in Brazil

Brazil operates a federal system. Under Lei n° 8.934/1994 (Law No. 8,934 of 1994), the Sistema Nacional de Registro de Empresas Mercantis — SINREM (National System of Mercantile Enterprise Registration) pairs a central normative body with local executing bodies: DREI issues the technical rules, while each state and the Federal District has its own Junta Comercial, administratively subordinate to the state government but technically subordinate to DREI. DREI sits within the Ministério do Empreendedorismo, da Microempresa e da Empresa de Pequeno Porte (Ministry of Entrepreneurship, Microenterprise and Small Business); its consolidated normative instruction governs the acts of the Juntas across the country, and a 2026 instruction standardises the collection, structuring, sharing and open-data use of registry data across the system.

Redesim and the CNPJ

Redesim — Rede Nacional para a Simplificação do Registro e da Legalização de Empresas e Negócios (National Network for the Simplification of Business Registration and Legalisation), created by Lei n° 11.598/2007 and reformed by Lei n° 14.195/2021, integrates the whole sequence: name and address feasibility check, CNPJ application, registration at the Junta Comercial, state and municipal tax registrations and licensing. The Cadastro Nacional da Pessoa Jurídica — CNPJ, issued by the Receita Federal (Federal Revenue Service), is now the single cadastral identifier across Redesim and may even be used as the company’s business name.

What is not in the Junta Comercial

Not every Brazilian legal entity is a mercantile one. Sociedades simples (simple companies), associations, foundations, religious organisations and political parties are registered in the Registro Civil das Pessoas Jurídicas — RCPJ (Civil Registry of Legal Entities) at notary offices, under Lei n° 6.015/1973 and Article 1,150 of the Civil Code, not at the Junta Comercial. Rural producers may opt into the Junta.

Legal forms that can be registered in Brazil

The forms are set by the Código Civil (Civil Code, Lei n° 10.406/2002) and, for joint-stock companies, by Lei n° 6.404/1976:

  • Empresário individual (Individual entrepreneur / sole trader) — Articles 966 to 968 of the Civil Code. No separate legal personality; unlimited personal liability.
  • Microempreendedor individual — MEI (Individual micro-entrepreneur) — a revenue-capped sub-category of the individual entrepreneur under Lei Complementar n° 123/2006, registered online through a simplified route; the owner remains personally liable.
  • Sociedade limitada — Ltda (Limited liability company) — Articles 1,052 to 1,087. Liability is limited to the value of each partner’s quotas, with joint responsibility for full payment of the capital. The workhorse of Brazilian business.
  • Sociedade limitada unipessoal (Single-member limited liability company) — Article 1,052, paragraphs 1 and 2, introduced in 2019. A limited company with a single quota holder; now the standard vehicle for solo entrepreneurs seeking limited liability.
  • Sociedade anônima — S.A. (Joint-stock company), aberta or fechada (publicly held or closely held) — Lei n° 6.404/1976. Shareholder liability is limited to the issue price of the subscribed shares; a company is aberta when its securities are admitted to trading and registered with the securities commission.
  • Sociedade em nome coletivo (General partnership) — Articles 1,039 to 1,044. All partners are unlimitedly, jointly and severally liable.
  • Sociedade em comandita simples (Simple limited partnership) — Articles 1,045 to 1,051. The comanditados are unlimitedly liable, the comanditários only up to their quota.
  • Sociedade em comandita por ações (Partnership limited by shares) — Articles 1,090 to 1,092 of the Civil Code and Articles 280 to 284 of the corporations law. Managing shareholders bear unlimited liability.
  • Cooperativa (Cooperative) — Articles 1,093 to 1,096 of the Civil Code and Lei n° 5.764/1971; filed at the Junta Comercial under Article 32 of the registry law, with a simplified route created for social-inclusion cooperatives.
  • Filial, sucursal ou agência de sociedade estrangeira (Branch, subsidiary establishment or agency of a foreign company) — Articles 1,134 to 1,141 of the Civil Code. A foreign company may not operate in Brazil, even through a subordinate establishment, without Executive authorisation processed through DREI; it may, however, hold shares in a Brazilian joint-stock company without authorisation.
  • Sociedade simples (Simple company) — Articles 997 to 1,038 of the Civil Code; registered at the civil registry of legal entities unless it adopts a business-company type.

A form that no longer exists

The empresa individual de responsabilidade limitada — EIRELI (individual limited liability enterprise) has been abolished. Article 41 of Lei n° 14.195/2021 provided that EIRELIs existing on the entry into force of the law were transformed into single-member limited companies irrespective of any amendment to their constitutive act, and the corresponding provisions of the Civil Code were subsequently expressly revoked. Any reference to an EIRELI in older documents should be read as referring to a sociedade limitada unipessoal.

Information available from the Brazilian business register

The statutory rule is generous. Article 29 of the registry law provides that any person, without needing to prove an interest, may consult the records held by the Juntas Comerciais and obtain certificates. Decisions of the Juntas are published on their own websites.

Federal tax data are equally open: the Comprovante de Inscrição e de Situação Cadastral (proof of registration and cadastral status) is available free and without login, showing the CNPJ, the corporate and trade names, the opening date, the activity codes, the legal nature, the address and the current status. In addition the tax authority publishes the CNPJ base as dados abertos (open data), with downloadable tables of companies, establishments, tax-regime data and partners.

Joint-stock companies have their own publicity regime: under Article 289 of the corporations law they publish summaries in a widely circulated newspaper at their seat with simultaneous full publication on that newspaper’s digitally certified website, with relief for smaller closely held companies.

What is restricted

Three limits are worth knowing. First, the quadro de sócios e administradores (list of partners and administrators) on the official CNPJ consultation service now requires an authenticated government account at an intermediate or high assurance level; it is free but not anonymous. In the CNPJ open data, partner names are published while their taxpayer numbers are masked.

Second, shareholders of joint-stock companies are effectively not obtainable from the registry: DREI’s normative instruction states expressly that the Juntas Comerciais do not hold updated shareholder data for joint-stock companies and partnerships limited by shares, since ownership is recorded in the company’s own share registry books.

Third, beneficial ownership is declared to the tax authority, not published. The obligation sits in the CNPJ normative instruction, with an electronic beneficial-owner form that became mandatory in January 2026. The data are absent from the CNPJ open data and from the public consultation, which is consistent with tax secrecy, although no official text expressly declaring them confidential could be identified.

Documents that can be obtained from the register

  • Certidão simplificada (Simplified certificate) — an extract of the current data resulting from the filed acts: business name, registry identification number, CNPJ, address, corporate object, capital, partners and administrators and status, together with any annotations, blocks, cancellations or suspensions. It is also the instrument for protecting the business name in other states. Used as proof of existence and current standing.
  • Certidão específica (Specific certificate) — issued in three variants: of specified filed acts; as a linha do tempo do quadro de sócios e administradores (timeline of partners and administrators) showing full qualification, capital and each partner’s stake with entry and exit dates and cause, except for joint-stock companies and partnerships limited by shares; and of ônus (encumbrances). The principal due-diligence document on ownership history.
  • Certidão de inteiro teor (Full-content certificate) — digitised copies of all acts filed by the company, that is its complete corporate history. Used for litigation, notarial and cross-border purposes.
  • Certidão negativa (Negative certificate) — attests that no act or special annotation exists for a given person or company.
  • Ficha cadastral completa (Complete registration file) — a state-level product of individual Juntas Comerciais, combining the data recorded at incorporation with an extract of all subsequent filings; its content varies between states.
  • Cópias digitalizadas de atos arquivados (Digitised copies of filed acts) — the contrato social (articles of association) or estatuto (statutes) and their amendments, as filed.
  • Consulta ou busca de nome empresarial (Business name search) — a Junta Comercial service used to test the availability of a proposed business name before registration.
  • Comprovante de Inscrição e de Situação Cadastral (CNPJ registration and status certificate) — the federal tax authority’s free certificate confirming a company’s CNPJ data and whether it is active, suspended, unfit or closed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who keeps the business register in Brazil?

The twenty-seven state Juntas Comerciais keep the Public Registry of Mercantile Enterprises, under the technical supervision of DREI within the Ministry of Entrepreneurship, Microenterprise and Small Business.

Is Brazilian company information public?

Yes. Article 29 of Law No. 8,934/1994 allows any person, without proving an interest, to consult the records of the Juntas Comerciais and to obtain certificates, and the tax authority publishes CNPJ data as open data.

Does EIRELI still exist?

No. Law No. 14,195/2021 transformed all existing EIRELIs into single-member limited companies automatically, and the Civil Code provisions creating the form were later revoked.

Can I find the shareholders of a Brazilian S.A.?

Not from the registry. DREI’s rules state that the Juntas Comerciais do not hold updated shareholder data for joint-stock companies and partnerships limited by shares; ownership is kept in the company’s own share registry books.

Is beneficial ownership information public in Brazil?

No. Beneficial owners are declared to the federal tax authority through an electronic form that became mandatory in January 2026, and the data do not appear in the public CNPJ consultation or in the open data.

Which certificate should I request for due diligence?

The certidão específica in its partners-and-administrators timeline variant for ownership history, and the certidão de inteiro teor where the complete set of filed acts is needed.

Sources

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