Brazil Grants Tax Relief and Priority Refunds to Exporters Hit by U.S. Tariffs

Companies affected by the 50% tariff imposed by the United States on Brazilian products will have priority in the process of restitution and reimbursement of tax credits, which companies use to offset taxes and contributions owed. In addition, these companies have had deadlines for federal tax payments and installments related to the Union’s active debt extended.

The tax relief measures are outlined in an ordinance published by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad and form part of the Brazil Sovereign plan, which was regulated by the government last week through credit lines and other measures to support exporters affected by the measure imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

According to the text, priority in analysis will apply to tax credit requests already submitted to the tax authority, through the Electronic Request Program for Restitution, Reimbursement or Refund and Declaration of Compensation (Per/Dcomp), as well as those submitted within six months of the ordinance’s publication, which occurred last Friday (22). This deadline may still be extended for an equal period by the Federal Revenue Special Secretariat. It will also apply only to taxes administered by the Revenue Service.

The measure will benefit private exporting companies of goods that, between July 2024 and June 2025, obtained at least 5% of their total revenue from exports of items subject to the additional tariffs. Individual Microentrepreneurs (MEIs) and rural producers with a National Corporate Taxpayer Registry (CNPJ) may also be eligible.

The Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce, and Services (MDIC) will still publish a table indicating, by the Mercosur Common Nomenclature (NCM), which products are affected by the 50% tariff imposed by the United States, which will be essential for companies to verify whether they meet the minimum 5% criterion.

The ordinance published last Friday also provides for the extension of deadlines for payment of federal taxes and installments of settlements and tax transactions made with the Office of the Attorney General of the National Treasury (PGFN) or the Federal Revenue Service. According to the regulation, August 2025 due dates were extended to the last business day of October, and those due in September can be collected until the last business day of November. The deferral will also apply only to companies affected by the tariff increase.

In the case of the deferral, the measure will not have a fiscal impact in the year, because the payments will still occur in 2025. It represents only temporary relief from tax payments in the first two months that the tariffs are in force.
The Finance Ministry states that the provision for priority in the restitution of tax credits will also have no fiscal impact. “There was no change in the rules for approving the restitution,” the ministry said in a note sent to Valor.

Economist Tiago Sbardelotto, from XP Investimentos, explains that the measure should indeed not have a fiscal impact, since it is only a change in the order of priority. “The main effect should be temporal – more concentrated use in these first months and less next year,” he said.

He points out that the prioritization set out in the ordinance combines with the increase in the percentage of federal tax reimbursement via Reintegra. This program enables companies exporting their products to receive a refund of all or part of the taxes paid to the Union, thereby stimulating exports.

“In other words, you allow a larger volume of tax credit [via the increase in Reintegra] and, at the same time, give priority for the use of this credit. Of course, it is not restricted only to this source of tax credits, but these should be the most significant at the moment,” he explained.

Tax experts interviewed by the report have doubts about how this “fast-track” will work and whether other companies requesting compensation may be harmed, which, they argue, should not happen. The Finance Ministry denies that companies not covered by the ordinance will be hurt.

“The measure to prioritize is legitimate to provide comfort for companies, but it is a normative act that states it will not respect chronological order,” said lawyer Priscila Faricelli, partner at Demarest. For her, it is a legitimate measure by the government, which knows that there are many tax credit compensation requests waiting for analysis. However, she points out that prioritization may encourage lawsuits from companies not included, as they will feel harmed by the chronological order of requests.

Faricelli recalls that, recently, the Supreme Federal Court (STF) ruled that chronological order prevails for government reimbursement to individuals. The issue was judged in a case about the return of credits recognized judicially, indicating that it must be through court-ordered payments (precatórios) and not by administrative restitution requests. “The Judiciary has been respecting the order of precatórios,” she said.

According to the Finance Ministry, regarding companies not affected by the tariff increase, it is not correct to say that they will be harmed by the prioritization, since “granting restitution to one does not imply denying restitution to another.” “We will continue analyzing all cases to ensure the restitution of what is due,” the ministry said in a note.

Source: Valor Econômico

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