On December 19, 2014, the Secretary of the Brazilian Federal Revenue Office (Receita Federal do Brasil – RFB) issued RFB Normative Instruction [Instrução Normativa] No. 1530 (RFB IN 1530/2014), which defines the meaning of international standards of fiscal transparency for the purpose of article 1 of Ordinance [Portaria] No. 488, of November 18, 2014 (MF Ordinance 488/2014), issued by the Minister of Finance, and also contemplates the procedure for requesting the review of framework as “favored taxation country or dependency” (país ou dependência com tributação favorecida) or “privileged fiscal regime” (regime fiscal privilegiado).
According to RFB IN 1530/2014, there are two requirements for a country to be considered aligned with international standards of fiscal transparency: (i) it must have signed with Brazil a treaty or agreement with a specific clause for exchange of information for tax purposes or completed the negotiation to enter into any such treaty or agreement; and (ii) it must be committed to the criteria defined in international fora to combat tax evasion that Brazil has already joined, such as the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes.
The treaty or agreement must provide for the availability of information concerning the identification of beneficiaries of income, the corporate composition, the ownership of assets or rights or the economic operations carried out.
The countries, dependencies or regimes that would like to review their framework as “favored taxation country or dependency” or “privileged fiscal regime” will have to adopt the procedure described herein. The request: (i) must be forwarded by the representative of the government of the interested country or dependency; (ii) will be addressed to the Secretary of RFB; (iii) will have to be accompanied by evidence of the content and validity of fit to revise the tax laws framing; and (iv) can be received with suspensive effect at the discretion of the Secretary of RFB.
Both the granting of the suspensive effect and the result of the analysis of the review request shall be formalized by means of an Executive Declaratory Act (Ato Declaratório Executivo – ADE) issued by the Secretary of RFB and published in the Official Gazette of the Union (Diário Oficial da União – DOU). The decision of the Secretary of RFB will be valid for the future (ex nunc, i.e.from now on) and not for the past.
RFB IN 1530/2014 came into full force and effect as of December 22, 2014, the date of its publication in the DOU.