Regulatory updates - Brazil

The new Complementary Law Number 199 from 1 August 2023 has been introduced to reduce bureaucracy, unify electronic tax documents' issuance, and standardize legislation and systems to fulfil supplementary obligations.

Tax administrations from the three spheres of government (Union, States, Municipalities and the Federal District) will be able to share tax and registration data whenever necessary to decrease extra obligations and increase inspection efficiency.

Which challenges is the National Statute aimed at?

Currently, e-invoice formats vary widely across the country, raising business maintenance costs and impacting company budgets. The new statute incorporates guidelines for issuing electronic invoices and achieving supplementary obligations.

Furthermore, this statute aims to reduce tax obligation compliance costs and encourage conformity from taxpayers by addressing the following:

• Unified issuance of electronic tax documents;
• Use of data from tax documents to calculate taxes and provide pre-filled declarations and respective tax collection guides;
• The unification of tax and contribution collections to facilitate the payment of taxes and contributions; and
• Harmonization of tax records and sharing according to legal competence.

Who ensures the execution of simplification measures?

The simplification measures will be managed by the National Committee for the Simplification of Additional Tax Obligations (CNSOA), linked to the Ministry of Finance. Representatives of the tax authorities of the Union, States and Municipalities, and the Federal District will form the committee.

Adjustment SINIEF 21/2023 and Adjustment SINIEF 25/2023 change the Adjustment SINIEF (National Tax Economic Information System) 36/19 and 09/07. These SINIEF Adjustments refer to:

• Adjustment SINIEF 36/19: establishes the Electronic Bill of Lading for Other Services (CT-e OS) and the Auxiliary Document of the Electronic Bill of Lading for Other Services;
• Adjustment SINIEF 09/07: establishes the Electronic Bill of Loading and the Auxiliary Document of the Electronic Bill of Lading.

Events impacted by the Adjustments

The amendments refer to the inclusion of this event:

• Cancellation of non-compliant service provision, record that the service provider cancelled the non-compliant service.

These new regulations also revoke the following events:

• IX - GTV information, registration of information contained in the Cash Transport Guides – GTV;
• XVIII - Authorized Redispatch records that a CT-e of redispatch has been referenced in a CT-e with normal service type;
• XIX - Intermediate Redispatch Authorized records that an intermediate redispatch CT-e has been referenced in a CT-e with normal service type;
• XX - Authorized Subcontracting records that a subcontracting CT-e has been referenced in a CT-e with normal service type.

Entry into force

Adjustment SINIEF 21/2023 entered into force on 9 August 2023, as per its publication date in the Federal Official Gazette.

Adjustment SINIEF 25/2023 was published on 9 August 2023 in the Official Gazette of the Union. It becomes effective from the first day of the second month following the publication, i.e., from 1 October 2023.

“Conhecimento de Transporte Eletrônico” (CT-e) is the Brazilian transpostation e-Invoice. The NT 2015.002 version 1.02 was published on 12 July 2023 and this version includes the delivery failure event and its cancellation in the distribution Web Service to CT-e actors.

Now a CT-e actor can access electronic fiscal documents (DF-e) that have been generated by other actors. Both a legal entity and an individual who have a digital certificate of PJ or PF can consult information.

DF-e will be available in the CT-e National Environment for up to 3 months after its issuance only for actors who play the roles of issuer, recipient, sender, receiver, issuer, borrower and third parties (informed in the autXML tag).

For the tax secrecy purpose, all CT-e and NF-e access keys listed in the consulted CT-e must be changed to the literal 99999999999999999999999999999999999999999999, as decided by ENCAT.

PEC 45/2019 provides for replacing five taxes with two international standard value-added taxes (VAT) with uniform legislation that is simpler and more homogeneous.

The reform promises to put an end to the collection of taxes over taxes, a practice that makes the production chain more expensive, raises the price of products and hinders the competitiveness of the Brazilian economy.

The five taxes to be replaced are listed below:

Three federal taxes

• Programas de integração social (PIS)
• Contribuição para o financiamento da seguridade social (Cofins) and
• Imposto sobre Produtos Industrializados (IPI)

Further federal tax

• Imposto sobre circulação de mercadorias e serviços (ICMS)

Municipal tax

• Imposto sobre serviço (ISS)

The federal and regional rates will be defined later by a supplementary law.

The two new value-added taxes are:

Tax on Goods and Services (IBS)

• Replacing ICMS and ISS

Contribution on Goods and Services (CBS)

• Replacing (PIS), Cofins and IPI

CBS and IBS will be charged at the time consumption occurs and will not be cumulative. The PEC also proposes the creation of a Selective Tax to discourage the consumption of products and services that are harmful to health and the environment.

As of 2033, current taxes will be phased out. Essential goods and services, such as health, education, medication, urban public transport, and artistic and cultural activities will have reduced rates.

As previously reported by Pagero, Ajuste Sinief 1/2019, which instituted the Electric Energy e-Invoice and the Auxiliary Document of the Electric Energy e-Invoice, model 66, have been amended once again, now by Ajuste Sinief 14/2023. This amendment postpones the mandatory issuance of NF3-e in the states of Espírito Santo and Santa Catarina.

The NF3-e will be implemented in the below states in the following order:

• 1 June 2023: Minas Gerais
• 1 October 2023: Espírito Santo
• 1 January 2024: Santa Catarina
• 1 June 2024: São Paulo

These changes took effect on the date of their publication in the (DOU - Diário Oficial da União) on 17 May 2023.

The NF3-e is a fiscal e-invoice for the supply of electricity that must be issued by the distributors of electricity. Ajuste Sinief 1/2019 which instituted the Electric Energy e-Invoice and the Auxiliary Document of the Electric Energy e-Invoice, has now been amended by Ajuste Sinief 7/2023. This amendment postpones the mandatory issuance of NF3-e in São Paulo. Deadlines for other states remain unchanged.

In addition to the postponement, the adjustment also prohibits the bookkeeping of NF3-e which only contains items without the indication of the Tax Situation Code (CST).

These changes took effect on the date of its publication in the Official Gazette (DOU - Diário Oficial da União) on 19 April 2023.

As previously reported by Pagero, Brazil is in the process of implementing a national standard for electronic service invoices (NFS-e). On 31 March 2023, the Simples Nacional Management Committee (CGSN) decided to delay the entry into force of the mandatory issue of the NFS-e by the MEI, provided for in Article 3 of Resolution No. 169/2022. The CGSN also approved Resolution No. 172/2023, which updates tax transaction provisions, in accordance with articles 141-E to 141-G, of CGSN Resolution No. 140/2018.

Taxpayers opting for Simples Nacional may use the tax transaction institute to settle their debts with the public treasury, using precatory or credit rights recognized by a final court judgment to amortize the principal debt, interest and fine, in relation to the entity debtor's own credits. Transacting tax administrative litigation debts will also be possible at the federal, state, municipal, and district estates.

Brazil has a very high number of municipalities with different e-invoicing standards for each. This is one of the reasons why this country has one of the most complex CTC models in the world. Moreover, the tax that levies the consumption of services (ISSQN - Imposto Sobre Serviços de Qualquer Natureza) is and regulated by each of the municipalities, which makes it only harder to comply with a vast variety of requirements.

To facilitate e-invoicing compliance, the Brazilian Federal Revenue Agency (RFB) has signed an agreement with the National Confederation of municipalities (CNM) and some other relevant entities, in which they agreed to establish a National System of the NFS-e (SNNFS-e).

What is the SNNFS-e?

The SNNFS-e will allow the issuance of NFS-e in a national standard through the web portal, mobile app or API. The document format for issuance of the standard NFS-e is XML, and it must be digitally signed. The SNNFS-e also introduces a national repository system of all NFS-e generated, called National Data Environment (ADN).

The switch to the SNNFS will be voluntary for municipalities. The system will offer them several service modules to adopt, together with one mandatory module, the ADN.

Among the municipalities that have already signed the agreement, we can mention São Paulo, Salvador, and Florianópolis. The success of this national NFS-e standard relies on significant adoption by municipalities, so taxpayers must be ready to comply as this takes place across the country.

Start of the pilot

A pilot program started on 23 July 2022 with five municipalities being part of the roll-out of this new unified system. There are suggested implementation schedules, but further developments and announcements are expected in the upcoming months from the Brazilian Federal Revenue Agency.

Stay tuned with Pagero to be the first one to know about the latest e-invoicing developments in Brazil