News

Supreme Court Schedules the Trial of the so-called "Tax Case of the Century" The Supreme Court has scheduled the hearing of a motion for clarification of a decision that deals with the exclusion of the ICMS tax from the PIS and COFINS tax calculation bases for April 29, 2021. In 2017, the Supreme Court ruled that the ICMS tax must be[...]

Dutch Government Changes the Classification of Brazilian Interest on Shareholder Equity (“JCP”) According to new directives from the Dutch Government, Interest on Shareholder Equity received by Dutch beneficiaries from Brazilian sources must now be classified as dividends instead of interest. As a consequence, Dutch taxpayers who receive[...]

Brazilian Government Grants New Tax Breaks to Mitigate the COVID-19 Crisis Due to the continued state of public emergency in Brazil, the Federal Government has granted several tax breaks to mitigate the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including: Postponement of Social contribution tax (“PIS, Cofins, INSS, CPRB and Funrural”)[...]

Brazilian Government Gives Several Tax Breaks to Mitigate the Covid-19 Crisis  Due to the health crisis arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Government decreed a state of public calamity in Brazil and most governors and mayors ordered “non-essential activities” to be shut down. In an effort to mitigate the economic effects of[...]

On March 30, 2020, the federal government published the Provisional Measure (“Medida Provisória”) nº 931/20 enacting some new rules on the above matter through amendments to the Civil Code, the Corporation law, the regulation of cooperatives among other Brazilian laws. In view of the business activity’s slowdown and the forced[...]

Our Corporate Partners prepared an informative material regarding some impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on contracts. We clarify that the following questions were elaborated in a generic and comprehensive way, considering the Brazilian legal system (Civil Law). Therefore, our understanding may change according on the peculiarity of the practical[...]

The Supreme Court Criminalizes the Non-Payment of ICMS Tax The Supreme Court reached a majority decision to criminalize the non-payment of declared ICMS tax. According to the court, since the ICMS is an indirect tax, the seller of goods (who pays the ICMS) is reimbursed the tax amount by transferring the charge to the buyer. Thus, the person[...]

Brazil’s IRS Issues New PIS and COFINS Regulations Brazilian tax authorities published Normative Ruling 1,911/2019, regulating all tax legislation related to PIS and COFINS, including (i) calculation of the tax owed in the domestic market; (ii) non-cumulative credits; (iii) PIS/COFINS-Import; (iv) special methods for specific industries, such[...]

Mercosur-EU Free Trade Agreement Moves Forward After 20 years of negotiations, the European Union and Mercosur have moved forward with the free trade agreement between the two blocs. The agreement provides for international standards for transparency rules, increases access and competition in government purchases and provides efficiency and[...]

Brazil and Uruguay Sign a Double Taxation Convention On June 7, 2019, Brazil and Uruguay signed a Double Taxation Convention, which contains several rules aligned with the BEPS Project (Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) minimum standards, such as general anti-avoidance rules and exchange of information among the contracting states’ tax[...]