MEI for private teachers in Brazil: who qualifies, what it costs and when to move on

Yes. The starting point for MEI for private teachers in Brazil is the list of occupations allowed for MEIs: Annex XI of CGSN Resolution 140/2018, published by the Receita Federal and repeated on the gov.br portal. These are the teaching occupations that matter most:

If you teach English, Spanish, Portuguese for foreigners or any other language, the occupation that describes your work is instrutor(a) de idiomas independente. The independent private teacher occupation uses the catch-all code for other teaching activities.

Beyond the occupation, some requirements apply to every MEI. According to the Receita Federal's MEI and Simei Q&A (updated 04/29/2025), you must:

• earn up to R$ 81,000 a year;
• have a single place of business and not own, be a partner in or manage another company;
• hire at most one employee;
• not have a relationship of personal service, subordination and regularity with whoever hires you, and not work by supplying or leasing labor.

That last point catches school teachers. If you teach for a single school, with fixed hours and a boss, that arrangement runs into the personal-service, subordination and regularity rule. An MEI makes sense for your own students and clients.

An MEI pays a fixed monthly amount, the DAS, which doesn't change with revenue. In 2026, with a minimum wage of R$ 1,621, the amounts published by the Receita Federal are:

That's R$ 1,032.60 a year. The DAS is due on the 20th of each month and can be generated in PGMEI or the MEI app. If you prefer automatic debit, turn it on by the 10th of the month to have the previous month's payment collected.

There are two more simple obligations: keep a monthly gross revenue report, with your invoices filed, to show if the tax authority asks, and file the annual return (DASN-Simei) by the last day of May. Being an MEI neither requires nor exempts you from filing a personal income tax return: that follows the usual income tax rules.

The cap in force is R$ 81,000 a year (Complementary Law 123/2006, art. 18-A). In the year you register, it's prorated: R$ 6,750 times the number of months from registration to December, counting the starting month as a full month. Students abroad count toward the same cap: the MEI has no extended limit for exports.

• Over by up to 20% (up to R$ 97,200 in the year): you stop being an MEI on January 1 of the following year.
• Over by more than 20%: you're removed from the MEI retroactively to January 1 of the year the excess happened.
• Either way, you must report it by the last business day of the month after the excess.

What about the R$ 130,000 cap? It's in bill PLP 108/2021, passed by the Senate on 08/12/2021 and still pending in the Chamber of Deputies. In the Congress record checked in October 2026, the latest step was dated 08/24/2026, with no final vote. Until it becomes law, the cap is R$ 81,000.

Registration is free and online. Be wary of websites that charge to open an MEI.

1. Get a gov.br account at the silver or gold level (for foreigners, bronze is enough).
2. Go to the Portal do Empreendedor, open the Quero ser MEI section and click Formalize-se.
3. Sign in with your gov.br account and fill in the form with your personal and business details.
4. Choose the main occupation: instrutor(a) de idiomas independente.
5. Check the declarations and finish.
6. Issue your MEI certificate (Certificado da Condição de Microempreendedor Individual, CCMEI), also on gov.br.

Once you have your CNPJ, sign in to the national NFS-e issuer before you need your first invoice. That's the next section.

It depends on who pays. Under CGSN Resolution 140/2018 (art. 106), as summarized in the Receita Federal Q&A:

• Individual students: the MEI is exempt from issuing an invoice (nota fiscal).
• Schools or companies with a CNPJ: issuing one is mandatory, unless the client issues an inbound invoice itself.

Since September 1, 2023, under CGSN Resolution 169/2022, MEI service providers issue invoices in the national NFS-e standard. You access it through the national issuer on the web or the NFS-e Mobile app, with your gov.br account or a digital certificate. Even when you're exempt, issuing an invoice for a student who asks takes a few minutes and keeps your monthly report tidy.

Without a CNPJ, you're paid as an individual and pay income tax through the carnê-leão: every month, on what you received from individual students or from abroad, by the last business day of the following month. Since January 2026, Law 15,270/2025 reduces the tax on income subject to monthly taxation: up to R$ 5,000 a month the tax is zero, and the reduction phases out at R$ 7,350.

An example: a teacher earns R$ 4,000 a month, all from individual students, with no other income. As an individual, the 2026 reduction should bring the monthly tax to zero (check it in Carnê-Leão Web), and social security is up to her. As an MEI, she pays R$ 86.05 a month, contributes to INSS and gets a CNPJ to work with schools. If she also has a salary from another job, the math changes, because everything adds up on the annual return.

In general, MEI for private teachers in Brazil pays off if you work with schools and companies that need invoices, want a simple way to pay into social security or have already moved past the range where individual tax is low. Staying an individual can be enough at the start, with a few students who are all individuals.

The clearest sign is revenue getting close to R$ 81,000. Wanting a partner or hiring more than one person also takes you out of the MEI.

As a microbusiness (ME) under Simples Nacional, language teaching falls under Annex III: Complementary Law 123/2006 (art. 18, § 5-B) lists foreign-language schools there. The first bracket, for revenue up to R$ 180,000 over 12 months, has a 6% rate. At R$ 8,000 a month, the payment comes to about R$ 480, versus R$ 86.05 as an MEI. In return, the brackets go up to R$ 4.8 million over 12 months, and export revenue gets its own reduction in the calculation.

MEI and Simples rules change by resolution, and Brazil's consumption tax reform (Complementary Law 214/2025) is in transition. Before you open, switch or close an MEI, confirm the numbers with an accountant (contador) and on the official gov.br pages.