Brazilian Federal Revenue Establishes Rules for New ‘DIRBI' Tax Return

In a move to regulate the ancillary obligation created by Provisional Measure No. 1,227/2024, on June 18, 2024, the Brazilian Federal Revenue Service (RFB) published Normative Instruction RFB No. 2,198/2024 (the “Instruction”), which provides for the filling of a Declaration of Incentives, Waivers, Benefits and Immunities of a Tax Nature (a “DIRBI”). Through this filing, the RFB aims to guarantee better control over the use of tax benefits by companies.

A DIRBI will contain information on tax credits, the amount contributed through those credits, and contributions not collected due to tax incentives, renunciations, benefits, and tax immunities granted to legal entities, so long as those provisions are listed in the annex of the Instruction.

Among the tax benefits to be declared are those from the Emergency Program for the Resumption of the Events Sector (Perse), the Special Regime for the Acquisition of Capital Goods for Exporters (Recap), the Special Regime of Incentives for the Development of Infrastructure (Reidi ) and the Tax Regime to Incentive the Modernization and Expansion of the Port Structure (Reporto). REPETRO-SPED was notably excluded from the list.

Benefits, among the ones listed above, must also be declared on the DIRBI, such as those granted to bunker oil, pharmaceutical products, or payroll, among others. It is recommendable to analyze the annex of the instruction, as not all benefits were included.

The DIRBI must be submitted monthly by the 20th day of the second month following the calculation period. For tax benefits for the period from January to May 2024, the DIRBI must be submitted by July 20, 2024.

Failure to submit a DIRBI can result in fines, either calculated monthly or as a percentage of the company’s gross revenue, ranging from 0.5% to 1.5%. The penalties are limited to 30% of the value of the tax benefits. In cases of incorrectly reported or missing amounts, a fine of 3% will be applied, with a minimum amount of BRL$500.

For further information, please contact our Tax team.