Published at the end of last year, Law No. 14,689/2023, also known as the CARF law, reestablished the casting vote in favor of the tax authorities, meaning that in the event of a tie, the understanding of the vote of the panel president, who is always a representative of the Treasury, will prevail.
In order to mitigate the impact of this legislative setback, the law eliminated fines and canceled criminal representations in cases where taxpayers were defeated by the casting vote.
When regulating the matter, however, the Federal Revenue Service introduced restrictions that did not exist in law. The first restriction concerns the type of penalties that will benefit from the exclusion, as late payment fines, customs fines, and individual fines were excluded from this amnesty.
Furthermore, according to regulatory standards, these exclusion benefits can only be applicable from January 12, 2023.
It should be noted that such restrictions are illegal because they add rules that do not exist in the CARF law, which is prohibited by the Brazilian legal system.
Therefore, we recommend that taxpayers affected by this situation quickly seek legal action to eliminate these illegalities.
