Taxpayers who have debts registered as outstanding tax liabilities (dívida ativa) will be able to join, as of July, what is being called an “exceptional settlement”. The program of the Office of the Attorney General of the National Treasury (PGFN) offers installment payment with a reduced down payment and discounts of up to 100% on penalties and interest (in the payment of debts).
To be entitled to the benefit, however, the taxpayer will have to demonstrate that they do not have the financial capacity to bear the full amounts of the debt. And present the revenues obtained in 2019 and in the first half of 2020 — the pandemic situation will be considered. Other information will also be required, such as equity and number of employees.
This data will be cross-checked with information from the PGFN database. Once the inability to pay the original amount of the debt is proven, the taxpayer will receive proposals for installment settlement with discounts and will make their choice.
Everything will be done through Regularize, a program that can be accessed on the Attorney General’s website. “There is nothing to prevent the taxpayer who tried in July and did not succeed from trying again in other months, because the situation may change due to the pandemic”, says Cristiano Neuenschwander, Deputy Attorney for the Management of Outstanding Liabilities of the Federal Government and the FGTS.
The enrollment period ends on December 29, the last business day of the year. The PGFN estimates that 70% of the five million taxpayers who have debts registered as outstanding tax liabilities are eligible for the program. And, according to Attorney João Grognet, General Coordinator of Credit Recovery Strategy of the PGFN, R$ 56 billion are expected to be renegotiated.
The new settlement is provided for in Ordinance No. 14,402, published yesterday in the Official Gazette of the Federal Government. Debts of up to R$ 150 million will be eligible. Taxpayers with debts above this amount may negotiate with the PGFN, but through another modality, the individual settlement — in which the parties sit down to talk.
The ordinance published yesterday is the second one for the pandemic period. The first, called “extraordinary settlement”, had been published in April and has an enrollment period set until the 30th of this month. About 30 thousand taxpayers have already joined, which, according to the PGFN, represents the negotiation of R$ 8 billion.
The conditions, now, however, are more advantageous. The ordinance published in April provided for a reduced down payment and installment payment, but did not grant discounts.
In Ordinance 14,402, published yesterday, the down payment will be 4% of the total amount of the debt, which may be paid in installments over up to 12 months. The remainder, with a discount on interest and penalties, may be settled in up to 84 months by companies in general. The period may reach 145 months for individuals, individual entrepreneurs, microenterprises, small businesses, educational institutions, Santas Casas de Misericórdia and cooperative societies.
The discounts, of up to 100% on interest and penalties, will vary according to the taxpayer’s payment capacity, the situation of the debt and the installment plan chosen — the more installments, the smaller the discount. In addition, the reduction may not be greater than 50% of the total amount of the debt. The limit is so that the principal amount of the debt, without the charges, is not reduced.
The lower down payment, paid in installments over 12 months, was designed for the period of lower financial capacity of companies, because of the crisis generated by covid-19. Daniel Saboia, Special Advisor of the Deputy Attorney General’s Office for the Management of Outstanding Liabilities of the Federal Government, says that the companies’ adaptation period is expected to extend until the beginning of 2021, with the recovery expected for the month of April.
“The settlement comes to bring instruments so that we can get through this period”, he says. “Instead of demanding fiscal recovery, we are postponing and considering a year of modest debt installments”, he adds. The tax settlement emerged at the end of 2019 with Provisional Measure No. 899, the Legal Taxpayer MP, converted into Law No. 13,988.
Two ordinances brought the rules for the settlement in April, 9,917 and 9,924. The first dealt with the general rules. Only taxpayers with a registration status indicating the irrecoverability of the credits in outstanding tax liabilities or with a deregistered CNPJ could participate. Ordinance 9,924 established, for the first time, conditions for the settlement due to the effects of the pandemic.
Ricardo Soriano de Alencar, the Attorney General of the National Treasury, emphasizes that “the settlement is not a Refis”. “It is a much more refined instrument, it evaluates each taxpayer”, he states.
According to the PGFN, almost 90% of the taxpayers who made use of Refis in recent years had the capacity to pay their debts in full.
There is discussion in Congress, however, about the creation of a new Refis, which, for the lawyer Andréa Mascitto, may leave taxpayers in a holding pattern. “Companies are waiting to see whether this Refis will come out to decide what is more advantageous”, she says.
For her, however, the “Attorney General’s Office took a good step” by making the settlement available. “It gave some relief amid this uncertainty of Refis or not and encourages tax compliance”, she adds. Julio Janolio sees the possibility of discounts, provided for in the PGFN ordinance, as interesting. But he also cites the bills that provide for the creation of a new Refis — these are PL No. 152, in the Senate, and PL No. 2,735, in the Chamber.
“They are more advantageous for taxpayers”, he says. “They provide for discounts of up to 100% on penalties and interest and also the possibility of payment with accumulated tax losses”. The counterpoint, however, he adds, is that there is, so far, no more forceful indication that they will be approved.
Source: Valor Econômico/ Joice Bacelo
← Back to blog