CPF in Brazil and purchases made online

Question

This doesn't necessarily involve travel, but does in a way and is similar enough to other questions I thought I'd give it a try.

My best friend is trying to buy something through an online retailer, in Brazil, to be delivered to a resident of Brazil. In the purchase steps (through Google website translate), she's asked for a CPF (equivalent to an SSN or NIN).

We've tried phoning the company (they don't speak English, understandably, and her Portuguese is very limited). Can anyone explain why a florist might need this, and what the appropriate thing to do for someone who obviously doesn't have one to put in that field might be? (Leaving it blank causes a form validation error)

By all means, if there's a better stack for this, please let me know, but this was the closest I could come up with.

Answer 1

CPF is used for tax-related purposes, quoting Wikipedia:

CPF is the Brazilian individual taxpayer registry identification, a number attributed by the Brazilian Federal Revenue to both Brazilians and resident aliens who pay taxes or take part, directly or indirectly, in activities that provide revenue for any of the dozens of different types of taxes existing in Brazil.

Since you're not a Brazilian resident it's not really relevant, if you need it just for this one transaction you may use an on-line generator to generate a fake but valid one. I did it several times when buying stuff through Brazilian websites and applying for jobs there, they often assume that everyone has a CPF number so this field is mandatory on many websites.

It's also possible to get one through a Brazilian consulate, but in your case it'd be overkill.