By Mariana Martins

The Ministry of Economy authorized the PGFN, supported by MP 899/2019, to adopt a package of measures to facilitate the renegotiation of debts and to temporarily suspend the collection of taxes registered in the Union's Active Debt, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Among the authorized measures are:

– Suspension, for a period of 90 days, of the initiation of new collection procedures, that is: (i) the registration of new debts in Active Debt and the filing of tax executions and (ii) the forwarding of active debt certificates to notary offices for protesting titles and documents;

– Suspension, for the same period, of the formalization of the exclusion of taxpayers from active installments, due to non-payment, and of the deadline for presenting administrative defenses in collection proceedings (in addition to the suspension of deadlines for presenting objections to execution and other statements in the context of tax executions by act of the Judicial Subsections of the Federal Courts and Federal Regional Courts);

– Facilitation of debt renegotiation procedures, such as deferring payment of installments for 90 days and reducing amounts corresponding to down payments in any transactions formalized with taxpayers, whether by adhesion or individual proposal.

The measures in question will be the subject of a normative act to be published in the DOU and will be valid, in principle, until the next day 25/03, the date on which MP 899/2019 will lose its effectiveness. Given the economic scenario established in the country, it is possible that the aforementioned rule will be converted into law within the regulatory period, so that the extension of the benefits and perhaps the implementation of new ones in the short term are ensured.

Our tax team is available to assist our clients and potential clients in dealing with the PGFN, in order to ensure that they enjoy the prerogatives listed here.