National Report on Brazil, 2

The objective of this paper is to identify the limitations for the selection of companies within the same corporate group to bear the unpaid taxes due by their co-companies at the Brazilian legal framework. Initially, we analyze the limitations to the selection of the taxpayer and the concept of corporate groups in Brazilian law. After, we demonstrate the specific restrictions to the transfer of tax obligations to third parties imposed by the National Tax Code and, in the end, we analyze a specific Brazilian legal provision that allocate joint and several liability due to mere belonging to a corporate group. Given this effort, we concluded that simply belonging to a corporate group is not a reason for transferring tax responsibility as per the National Tax Code and, therefore, this cannot be adopted by the Tax Authorities and by the Court System as justification for allocating tax responsibility onto a different company.