The National Treasury Attorney’s Office (PGFN) issued regulations regarding tax debt review request for debts judged by the CARF

In brief

On 6 October, 2023, the Attorney General’s Office of the National Treasury (“PGFN”) added to its services available in the so-called “Regularize” system the option of submitting a Request for Review of Tax Debt (PRDI) for debts that have been decided by the tie breaking vote at the Administrative Council for Tax Appeals – CARF, in accordance with Law No. 14,689, of September 20, 2023.

Due to Law No. 14,689/2023, cases decided at CARF using the tie breaking vote might allow the review of Tax Debts in two circumstances:

• Application of art. 15 of Law No. 14,689/2023 (exclusion of fines and cancellation of tax representation for criminal purposes): applicable when the Tax Debt was decided in favour of the National Treasury by the tie breaking vote until 01/12/2023 and in which the merits decision was not rendered at the Second Level Court.
• Application of art. 16 of Law No. 14,689/2023 (exclusion of interest, in addition to fines exclusion, in case of intention to pay): applicable when the Tax Debt was decided by the casting vote between 01/12/2023 and 06/01/2023.

In more detail

The PGFN statement, available on its website, establishes some conditions for the service and exposes its interpretation of Law No. 14,689/2023. Therefore, we consider the following points to be relevant:

• The statement informs that the application of art. 15 of Law 14,689 refers only to Tax Debt judged by tie breaking vote in favour of the tax authorities.
• Only the fine for late payment, established by art. 61 of Law No. 9,430/1996, and the ex officio fine, provided for in art. 44 of Law No. 9,430/1996, will be cancelled.
• For cases subject to art. 16 of the new law, the taxpayer will have until December 20, 2023 to inform the intention of paying under the benefits of the law (90 days after the publication of Law no. 14,689/2023).
• The cancellation of late payment interest, in accordance with art. 16 of Law No. 14,689/2023, applies only to the portion of the tax debt that has been definitively judged by the tie breaking vote in CARF.

We recommend reviewing cases that were closed by a tie breaking vote in order to allow the review request before the PGFN.