Brazil – Brazil will eventually need to resume discussions about requiring financial technology companies to report transaction value to tax revenue services, the agency said Tuesday.
Robinson Barreirinhas spoke at a Senate hearing, citing little-known payment agencies for money laundering.
Barreirinhas said the Revenue Agency has the intelligence capability to track transactions that the government still intends to expand to fintech. Such plans were suspended last year after strong public opposition.
“I don’t want to demonize fintech…but the fact is that because of the ease of opening up accounts, many people end up being used (for illegal transactions).”
In September, Brazil’s Tax Office issued a rule requiring fintech reports on transactions starting in January, including transactions made through the widely used Pix Instant payment system and align them with banks.
The measures against President Luis Inasio Lula da Silva’s government constituted a measure designed to impose taxes, prompting a sharp decline in the popularity of left-wing leaders in polls, prompting the government to suspend the rule.
Barreirinhas said the tax bureau’s financing of organized crime in Latin America’s largest economy through smuggled cigarettes and e-cigarettes, cryptocurrencies and online bets.
(Reported by Marcela Ayres; Edited by Richard Zhang)
