Ordinance 543 of the Federal Revenue Service – Term Suspensions

Last Tuesday, 03/31/2020, the General Coordination of Collection and Charge, issued a Technical Note to explain the effects related to the edition of Brazilian Federal Revenue Ordinance n° 543/2020, wich established rules for face-to-fece service, the suspension of deadlines for the practice of procedural acts and the performance of some administrative procedures, sush as:

1. The automated electronic issuance of billing notice and intimation for payment of taxes;
2. Notification of entry due to the tax structure of the individual;
3. Installment exclusion procedure due to taxpayer default;
4. Registration of pending regularizantion at the Social Security Number (CPF) due to the absence of a declaration;
5. Registration of disability in the National Register of Legal Entities due to absence of declarantion; and
6. Electronic issuance of decision-making orders with analysis of merit in request for restitution, reimbursement and compensation statement.

According to the aforementioned Technical Note, the Brazilian Federal Revenue Ordinance n° 543/2020 applies only to administrative proceedings, whose acts to be practice are suspended until 05/29/2020. Acts that may results from judicial decisions or that should be practice in the judicial process, such as determining the payment of taxes, for example, are not subject to this Ordinance.

The Note also emphasizes that in the event that there is a risk of the occurrence of prescription or decay, whether for the Federal Revenue Service or taxpayers, the procedural acts must be performed. We can cite as an example, the request for refund by the taxpayer or the establishment of a tax credit by the tax authorities.

In summary, the effects resulting from the issue of said Ordinance according to the Technical Note would be as follows:

1. Guarantee of tax credit: 30-day deadlines for challenging tax assessments, 10-day deadline for filing a hierarchical appeal in property listing processes or against a decision that has imputed the tax liability arising from the definitively constituted tax credit.They are suspended until 05/29/2020.
2. Installments: the routines for the automatic termination of installments in the systems of the Federal Revenue of Brazil were interrupted until 05/29/2020. Thus, taxpayer exclusions to the installments due to default are also suspended, as well as the deadlines for submitting hierarchical appeals within 10 days or manifestation of non-compliance within 30 days in the aforementioned cases.
3. Enrollment of tax credits in Union Active Debt: the 90-day period for forwarding tax debts to the Federal Attorney General’s Office for enrollment in Union Active Debt was not suspended by the Brazilian Federal Revenue Ordinance n° 543/2020, applying the procedure set forth in Ordinance MF n° 447/2018.
4. Other administrative procedures: they are suspended until 05/29/2020.

Possible changes that may occur during the suspension period, we will inform you in due course.

Marco Pietscher is Director of Tax Preventive at HLB Brasil.