Federal Revenue and State Treasury Office
There are two agencies subjected to the authority of the Ministry of Finance in Brazil: the Federal Revenue and the State Treasury Office. Both of them are important in the country and this article demonstrates their respective roles.
In Brazil, the Ministério da Fazenda, which is the Ministry of Finance, must formulate and implement the national economic policy. To administrate the Brazilian finances, the Ministry created the State Treasury Office, and for the fiscal administration, the Federal Revenue know in Portuguese as Receita Federal.
Both are governmental entities subject to the oversight of the Ministry, but with different roles. The State Treasury Office is in charge of the financial administration and federal accountability, the Federal Revenue's main function is to administrate federal taxes and enforce customs regulations.
State Treasury Office
The National Treasury is responsible for the management and usage of financial resources of the federal government. Such resources are derived principally from taxes paid by citizens collected by the Federal Revenue that are transferred to the State Treasury Office.
Headquartered in Brasilia, the agency administers programs for financial reorganization of states and municipalities and controls the Brazilian public debt.
Federal Revenue Office
The Federal Revenue Office of Brazil is a government body responsible for the administration of taxes levied by Brazilian State, including social security, and those levied on foreign trade. It also administrates a significant part of the Brazilian social contributions and subsidizes the federal executive branch by formulating tax policies.
Competencies of the Federal Revenue
The Federal Revenue Office prevents and combats tax evasion, smuggling, embezzlement, piracy, trade fraud, trafficking of drugs and animals and other unlawful acts related to international trade.
According to Federal Revenue Office web page, the government entity's competencies are:
- Administration of internal and foreign trade taxes.
- Management and implementation of activities of collection, launching, administrative charging, monitoring, fiscal research and investigation, and tax control.
- Management and implementation of management services, supervision and customs control.
- Repression against smuggling and embezzlement.
- Preparation and trial of administrative lawsuits of determination and demand for tax credits of the union.
- Interpretation, application and development of proposals for the improvement of tax and customs federal legislation.
- Subsidy for the formulation of tax and customs policies.
- Subsidy for the elaboration of income and tax benefits budgets of Brazil.
- Interaction with citizens through various service channels, by attendance or at distance.
- Policy formulation and management of economic and fiscal information.
- Promotion of integration with public and private bodies, through agreements for the exchange of information, methods and techniques of fiscal action and for the rationalization of activities.
- Role in international cooperation, negotiation and implementation of international agreements on tax and customs.
Taxes Collected by the Federal Revenue
The taxes collected by the Federal Revenue Office are:
- Cide Fuel
- Cofins
- CSLL
- Social security contributions
- Import Tax (II)
- Income Tax (IR)
- Tax Over Financial Operations (IOF)
- Tax Over Industrialized Products (IPI)
- Territorial Rural Tax (ITR)
- PIS/Pasep
- Simples Nacional.
Documents Issued by the Federal Revenue
The Federal Revenue Office is also responsible for the issuance of two important documents in Brazil:
- Cadastro de Pessoa Física, commonly known as CPF, which is the tax payer identification number of a person.
- Cadastro Nacional Pessoa Jurídica, commonly known as the CNPJ, which is the tax payer identification of a legal entity.
How to Have Access the Federal Revenue
In the Federal Revenue Office web page, citizens can have access to all services related to CPF, CNPJ and the taxation of foreign trade. It's also possible to consult the status of requests of certificates, declarations, fiscal situation and all kinds of subjects related to the income tax.