By: Vitor Ferrari and Ivan Kubala

On 11/01/2023, Law 14.534/2023 was published in the Official Gazette of the Union, whose legal text in addition to changing other legal devices, established the registration number in the Individual Taxpayer Registry, the CPF, as “unique and sufficient for identifying the citizen in public service databases”.

Furthermore, the Law establishes the obligation for the CPF to appear in all records and documents of public bodies, including civil records and even documents from professional councils.. Therefore, documents such as birth, marriage and death certificates, as well as voter registration cards, Employment and Social Security Cards (CPTS), National Driver's License (CNH) and National Health Card and other equally important documents must show the CPF number of their holder.

The Law also innovates regarding the documents to be issued, or eventually reissued, by public bodies or professional councils after its entry into force: The identification number of these documents will be the CPF registration number – creating a unique number for all of the citizen's documents.  

Therefore, from the entry into force of this Law, on January 11, 2023, The CPF number becomes a unique identification number, encompassing all Brazilian citizens and states, which facilitates the identification of the citizen in public service databases.

This unification will not occur immediately, as the citizen service systems of public services will need to be restructured, as well as creating an interoperability system between CPF numbers and databases.

Therefore, the Law also guarantees a period of 12 months for agencies and entities to adapt their systems and procedures for serving the public so that the CPF registration number is sufficient to identify the citizen; and a period of 24 months for agencies and entities to develop interoperability between their registration systems and databases solely through the citizen's CPF number.

With the collaboration of Luis Felipe Simão