Put Mariana Martins and Marcelo Blecher – 23/06/20202
ME Ordinance No. 247/2020 was published last Wednesday (17.06.2020) in the DOU, which regulates the criteria and procedures for entering into a transaction by adhesion in tax litigation involving relevant and widespread legal controversy and in small-value disputes.
The Ordinance highlights among its objectives the promotion of consensual resolution of administrative or judicial disputes through reciprocal concessions, the termination of administrative or judicial disputes already instituted over a given legal controversy, relevant and widespread, and the encouragement of self-regulation and tax compliance.
Under the terms of art. 30 of the Ordinance, it will be considered relevant and widespread legal controversy one that deals with tax issues that go beyond the subjective interests of the case and, preferably, has not yet been affected by the judgment of the repetitive appeals procedure, being it disseminated when it is found that there are (i) legal claims involving different parties and lawyers, in progress within at least three Federal Regional Courts; (ii) more than 50 (fifty) legal or administrative proceedings, referring to different taxpayers; and (iii) legal or administrative claims involving a significant portion of taxpayers belonging to a given economic or productive sector.
Already the relevance of the discussion will be demonstrated when there is (i) economic impact equal to or greater than one billion reais, considering all known pending judicial and administrative proceedings; (ii) divergent decisions between the ordinary panels and the Superior Chamber of CARF; and (iii) divergent sentences or rulings within the scope of judicial litigation.
As regards the small value tax litigation, the Ordinance establishes that the registration in active debt or tax assessment, including principal and fine, that does not exceed 60 (sixty) minimum wages and whose taxpayer is a natural person, micro-enterprise or small business.
The proposal for a transaction by adhesion will be made through the publication of a notice by the PGFN or by the Special Secretariat of the RFB, as the case may be. The notice must clearly and objectively provide for the factual and legal hypotheses that encompass the proposal, forms of payment, deadline and procedures for adhesion, among other specificities.
For these two types of transaction, the following may be granted: including the principal amount, discounts of up to 50% of the total value of the credit transacted and payment terms of, at most, 84 (eighty-four) months, in tax litigation of relevant and widespread legal controversy, and 60 (sixty) months, in tax litigation of small value.
Our tax team is monitoring the publication of the notice by the PGFN and is at your disposal or your company's disposal for any questions regarding the procedures for joining the transaction in cases of relevant and widespread legal controversy or of small value.
