BUYER’S GUIDE · 04
How to check the seller
before you pay
Four checks, all free, all public. Three can be done before the money moves. The fourth is the one that ends the argument, and it only works afterwards.
1. The CNPJ record — what the company declared it does
Ask for the CNPJ and look it up at the Receita Federal’s CNPJ registration record. Two fields matter.
Registration status. It must be ativa. Suspended, closed or unfit is a reason to stop there.
Main economic activity. That is the CNAE code, and it describes what the company declared it does:
4783-1/02
Retail trade in watch and clock articles.
A goods activity. It is the code of a business that buys to resell.
7490-1/04
Intermediation and agency of services and business in general.
A service activity. It is the code of a business that brings two sides together and charges for it.
The code forbids nothing, and a company may hold several. It is not proof — it is the description the company gave of itself, and it is worth holding against what the listing promises.
2. The state tax registration — the one that admits no workaround
Ask for the Inscrição Estadual and check it in the state’s taxpayer register. This check is harder than the previous one for a technical reason: without an active state registration there is no NF-e modelo 55. The system will not issue one.
It is a registration impossibility, not a commercial choice. A seller without one who promises a goods invoice is promising what they cannot deliver — regardless of good or bad faith.
3. The written question — the one thing you cannot look up
Siscomex registration is not a public lookup. There is no site where you type a CNPJ and find out whether that company imports. What replaces the lookup is the question, asked before you pay:
“Will the invoice I receive be an NF-e modelo 55, for the sale of goods, or an NFS-e for a service? What is the CFOP? What is the DI or DUIMP number, and which CNPJ is named as the importer?”
Ask by WhatsApp or e-mail, and keep the answer. Under articles 30 and 35 of the Consumer Defence Code, information a supplier provides is binding and forms part of the contract: the screenshot stops being a conversation and becomes evidence. The other questions are in How to tell whether the seller is really the importer.
4. After the purchase — the check that closes the matter
This is the definitive check, and it does not depend on what you were told. The Receita Federal keeps a public lookup of international parcels by recipient: if your purchase appears there with your CPF as recipient, you were the importer. Check at Consultar Remessa por Destinatário, or through Minhas Importações, from Correios when the parcel comes by post.
If the answer you received in writing before the purchase does not match what the lookup shows afterwards, you hold both: the promise and the fact. That is exactly what asking in writing is for.
Why we are the ones writing this
Coroa is being incorporated to act as the importer of record for independent brands in Brazil — customs clearance in its own name, a goods invoice issued to the buyer, and after-sales service in the country. We have a direct interest in this subject and it would be dishonest not to say so. It is also true that we have not imported anything yet: no stock, no catalogue, nothing to sell today.
This page holds whether you buy from us or from anyone else. Ask us exactly the same questions. If one day Coroa’s answer is not the one written here, this text counts against us too.