Consulting in Ciudad del Este: how to choose advisory help that fits

To choose a consultant in Ciudad del Este, start with the regime your business runs under or plans to use: a downtown shop selling to tourists, a maquila plant exporting to Brazil and a small firm going formal for the first time each need a different kind of adviser. Get written proposals from two advisers with scope, timeline and fees, and check what the state offers for free before you pay anyone.

What kind of advice does your business need?

• Day-to-day accounting and tax: VAT, income tax, books and e-invoicing in the Marangatú system of the DNIT⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠, Paraguay's tax and customs authority. Nearly every shop or service needs this.
• Border retail to visitors: if you import goods and sell them to foreign shoppers, look for someone who knows the Shopping Tourism Regime (below).
• Manufacturing or services for export: if you will produce for a client abroad, you are looking at the maquila regime, which has its own approval process at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MIC).
• Labour and legal: contracts, dismissals, debt collection or disputes. To represent you in court the adviser must be a lawyer registered with the Supreme Court⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠.

Selling to tourists: the Shopping Tourism Regime

Decree 2063/24 created this regime for importing certain goods and selling them to foreign individuals who do not live in Paraguay. According to the DNIT⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠, it cuts the effective VAT rate to 1.25% on the goods listed in the decree's annex, requires at least one shop in a border city such as Ciudad del Este, and charges a 1% advance on corporate income tax at customs, based on customs value. InfoNegocios⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠ adds that firms need capital of G. 6 billion to qualify.

Before hiring, ask the adviser:

• Whether they have handled registrations under this regime, and how many.
• How they will keep tourist sales and local sales separate in your books.
• Whether your company already appears on the DNIT's list of registered taxpayers⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠, or what is missing.

Producing for Brazil: the maquila regime

Alto Paraná is home to 48% of the companies with an approved maquila programme since 2001, and from January to July 2026, 61% of maquila exports went to Brazil, according to the MIC's July 2026 report⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠. Programmes are assessed by the National Council of Export Maquila Industries (CNIME), made up of the MIC, the finance ministry, the DNIT, the central bank and the labour ministry, under Law 1064/97 and Law 7547/25.

A useful maquila adviser drafts the programme (process, jobs, added value, waste and duration, which is what the law asks for), coordinates the programme's imports with your customs broker and can read contracts with the Brazilian company placing the work. Ask for examples of programmes they have filed with the CNIME.

Free help before you pay

• MIC Business Development Centre (SBDC): it works from an Itaipú property in Área 3 of Ciudad del Este and offers free diagnostics, training and technical assistance to small businesses in Alto Paraná; by late 2025 it had helped about a thousand firms (La Nación, 2025⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠; Última Hora⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠). A good first stop to get organised.
• EAS company: a simplified joint-stock company with standard by-laws can be set up online in up to 72 hours at no cost (MIC⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠). The legal representative must be Paraguayan or hold a Paraguayan ID card, so if your partners are Brazilians without one, that is where an adviser earns the fee.

What to check before you sign

• Tax ID and invoice: with the adviser's RUC you can look up their taxpayer profile in the DNIT's no-login services⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠, and every sale of services must come with an invoice (Sedeco via ABC Color⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠).
• Not barred: the DNIT publishes lists of barred businesses and taxpayers in arrears (DNIT⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠).
• Your Marangatú password is yours: put it in writing and change it if you switch firms.
• Language: if clients or partners are in Foz do Iguaçu or elsewhere in Brazil, agree whether reports come in Spanish or Portuguese and who pays for translation.
• Payroll up to date: from 1 July 2026 the minimum wage is G. 3,044,000 a month (ABC Color⁠⁠ (opens in a new tab)⁠). If you have staff, make sure the quote covers payroll and social security filings.

If you are based next door, see our guide to consulting in Presidente Franco, and for the city's shopping districts, commercial establishments in Ciudad del Este.