Rio de Janeiro State Decree No. 47.488/2021: Special Amnesty Program for Rio de Janeiro State Tax Credits

On February 12, 2021, Decree No. 47,488/2020 was published, regulating the Special Amnesty Program for ICMS (“PEP-ICMS”) in the State of Rio de Janeiro, as authorized by ICMS Agreement nº 87/2020.

The deadline to join PEP-ICMS is April 29, 2021.

This amnesty program covers ICMS credits, whether or not registered as overdue tax liability, related to taxable events that occurred up to August 31, 2020, except for those related to ICMS-ST.

Program Benefits

The program offers the following benefits if some conditions, as mentioned below, are met:

Requirements to Participate

It is important to note that to qualify for the program, a taxpayer must disclose the debts and withdraw any lawsuits and administrative proceedings that discuss such debts.

Regarding debts enrolled as overdue tax liabilities, attorneys’ fees will be due and calculated as a percentage of the debt and based on type of payment:

• Debts not discussed in a lawsuit: 4% for lump-sum payments and 6% for installment payments
• Debts under discussion in a lawsuit: 6% for lump-sum payments and 8% for installment payments

Deadlines and Due Dates

The taxpayer will be automatically excluded from the program, without further notification, if the deadline provided in item VII of article 5 of Complementary Law no. 189/2020 is exceeded (48 hours for the taxpayer to settle the outstanding installments or to solve any issues that may give rise to the cancellation), without the settlement of the outstanding installments, with the legal fines, if applicable, or without the filling of an administrative request to correct any existing faults.

In the event the first installment (or lump-sum payment) is not paid until the due date, the enrollment at PEP-ICMS is denied regardless of prior notification.

For more information related to this Legal Update, please contact our Tax team.