Normative Ruling RFB No. 1,656/2016: Amendments To The Rules Applicable To The Taxation Of Foreign Currency Exchange Gains And Losses - Tax Authorities

On August 2, 2016, Normative Ruling RFB 1,656/2016 was published in the Official Gazette , amending Section 5 of Normative Ruling RFB 1,079/2016. This amendment excluded the provision that restricted the changes between the methodology chosen by taxpayers applicable to tax foreign currency exchange gains and losses, i.e., accrual or cash methods, to the cases where Tax Authorities recognized the significant monetary variation. This recognition is to take place in the form of an Ordinance to be passed by the Ministry of Finance.

In summary, the new Normative Ruling classifies a positive or negative monetary variation as significant if in the period of a month it is greater than 10% (ten per cent) of the sale rate of the US Dollar published by the Brazilian Central Bank.

The change from the accrual method to the cash method can be put in place in the month after the occurrence of the significant exchange variation through the DCTF (Tax Credits and Debts Return). The new method will be in effect for the whole calendar year.

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