In an interview with Valor Econômico, our partners Ana Cláudia Utumi and Pedro Bresciani commented on the Federal Revenue Service’s announcement that financial institutions will not have to collect retroactive IOF, while the situation of taxpayers is still being studied.
Ana explained that “retroactive collection is not easy because it is not the responsibility of the financial institutions, or the private pension entity in the case of the VGBL, to make this payment. Each individual or legal entity that carried out an operation subject to the rate increased by the decree re-established by the Supreme Court would have to self-collect the IOF/Credit, IOF/Exchange or IOF/Insurance due”.
She also pointed out that “the Revenue Service is not exempting taxpayers, only those responsible for taxes”. What the text says is that those responsible have no obligation to pay retroactively”.
Pedro warned of the risks: “It’s a situation that violates legal certainty. As the legislative decree was the norm in force, the taxpayer has a legitimate expectation that it was the norm that applied. Therefore, collecting the tax for this period, even more so with the possibility of imposing a fine and interest, violates the taxpayer’s legitimate trust in the legal system.”
