One issue that is the subject of frequent debate in the administrative courts with jurisdiction to decide issues raised against infraction notices is the possibility for the administrative authority, after drawing up the infraction notice, to modify the grounds invoked by the authority or even introduce new elements of evidence to strengthen the grounds thereof.

As of October 14, mandatory publications by corporates must be carried out via the Public Digital Bookkeeping System (SPED), in the case of privately-held companies, and Empresas.NET, for publicly-held companies, in addition to the websites of these organizations themselves, and no longer in major newspapers.

Since the STF settled the theory that the ICMS tax is not included in the taxable base for the levy of the PIS and Cofins, in the judgment of Extraordinary Appeal (RE) No. 574,706, many taxpayers had a definitive resolution in their individual cases on the topic, which gave room to new controverted issues. One of the most relevant controversies, due to the cash effects found, concerns when to tax by the IRPJ and CSLL the amount of credits recognized in court and which will be subject to administrative offsetting.

Presidential Decree No. 10,029/19, published on September 27, authorized the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) to recognize the following as being in the interest of the Brazilian government: (i) installation in Brazil of new branches of financial institutions domiciled abroad; and (ii) increase in the percentage of equity in the capital of financial institutions headquartered in Brazil, held by individuals or legal entities resident or domiciled abroad.

On October 7, the Executive Branch forwarded to the National Congress Bill (PL) No. 5,387/19, which allows for implementation one of the objectives of the current management of the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) mentioned by the president of that organization, in his inauguration ceremony in March of this year: “to make the market more open to foreigners, with a possible convertible currency[1] that serves as a reference for the region."

A law passed in September by the state of California in the United States assumes that a person providing services for consideration should be considered an employee of the contracting company unless the company demonstrates that all of the following requirements have been met: