BRAZIL Law and Practice Contributed by: Paulo Honório de Castro Júnior, Bruno Marques Feitosa and Urick Soares, William Freire Advogados
15.3 Effects of Other Countries’ Legal Restrictions There are no policies of this nature in Brazil. 16. Transparency and Confidentiality 16.1 Publication of Information on APAs or Transfer Pricing Audit Outcomes As a general rule, inspection processes are con - fidential, with publicity only given to the parties involved. Because APAs require the disclosure of highly strategic and confidential information, taxpayers place themselves in a position of vulnerability when engaging with the tax authorities to nego - tiate such agreements. This concern is partially addressed in Article 12 of the draft Normative Instruction, which establishes the Federal Rev - enue Service’s obligation to maintain the confi - dentiality of financial, commercial, technical, and tax data provided by taxpayers, in accordance with applicable legal provisions on tax and pro - fessional secrecy.
However, a significant concern remains: if the parties fail to reach a final agreement, Article 31, paragraph 4 of the draft allows the information obtained during the process to be shared with other departments within the Federal Revenue Service. This provision raises doubts about the actual protection afforded to information dis - closed in a co-operative context and may dis - courage taxpayers from participating in the APA programme due to the risk that such information could later be used against them in tax proceed - ings. 16.2 Use of “Secret Comparables” There are no policies regarding secret compa - rables in Brazil.
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