On 23rd October 2018, the Federal Government published Decree No. 9,580/2018, which, unexpectedly, revoked Decree No. 3000/1999 (“RIR /99”), responsible for regulating taxation, administration, supervision and collection of Income Tax (IR) over the last 19 (nineteen) years.
The Tax and Customs Law Department at Montgomery & Associados is reviewing the impact of the more than 1,000 (one thousand) articles contained in the new Decree.
Although the Federal Tax Authority has stated that there has been a mere consolidation of articles, preliminary studies point to changes in some provisions which taxpayers were already familiar with, and also to the incorporation of provisions of Law No. 12,973/14, regarding accounting methods and criteria for calculating taxes, costs, operating expenses, charges, and other situations provided for in other norms.
Among the changes provided: (i) the regulation has been adjusted to the provisions on laches contained in [1] the National Tax Code (“CTN”). As a result thereof, the specific rule now also provides for the variation of the initial term in relation to culpable default and those resulting from fraud or simulation by the taxpayer. The lack of a specific provision in the former Decree allowed the Treasury to count the term in a more beneficial way for the State, for which reason such amendment should put a stop to such tendency that is unfavorable to taxpayers. There is also (ii) a clearer and more comprehensive scope for the institute of “official charge” [2] (article 900 et seq. of the current Decree), for example, with the inclusion of the possibility of the charge being effected if the taxpayer “VII – has filed a set-off declaration in which the set-off is considered to not have been declared and the debt has not been acknowledged”. Finally, another innovation observed is (iii) the possibility of taxpayers using government payment orders to pay Income Tax, which, previously, was only possible by resorting to judicial proceedings.
[1] Thus understood as the right of the State to constitute the tax credit to be collected from the taxpayer.
[2] Official that in which the fiscal/administrative authority constitutes the debt/imposes a penalty regardless of any action/filing by taxpayer. The following taxes can be subject to the official charge: IPTU, IPVA, fees, improvement contributions, corporate contributions, contribution to the public lighting service.
In view of the recent changes to the Income Tax Regulation and the impact that the same has on business activities, Montgomery & Associados is available to assist those interested in interpreting the new diploma according to the specialty of each case presented.