Ok, so I went and checked what are the taxes for detergent powder. It could be very wrong as I don't know the nuances of the sales tax. There are the federal i

Ok, so I went and checked what are the taxes for detergent powder. It could be very wrong as I don't know the nuances of the sales tax. There are the federal import duties + taxes, amounting to 29.4%. Note that this rate is specific for powdered dishwasher detergent. Considering the standard São Paulo state sales tax of "18%" which is actually 21,95% as you don't simply multiply the good's price by the rate, but divide it by 1-rate, you end up with a 58,38% effective tax rate for importing and selling the detergent powder. Ah yes, the federal taxes compose the tax base as well, so you are paying taxes on the privilege of being taxed. A good proxy for the right retail price would be just multiplying the US retail price - that already includes the profit - by the effective rate, which would land it at around $ 12. Consider that no sane business would be paying retail prices (and the import duties are applied to the bulk/transfer price), you can figure out that there's at least 169% of profit tacked on the package of detergent.