What they are sharing: that the federal government imposed a fee and fine for people who spend or transfer more than R$5,000 per month (individuals) and R$15,000 (legal entities) on Pix.
Estadão Verifica investigated and concluded: is misleading. A new rule established that financial transactions exceeding these amounts – including Pix, TED, credit and debit cards, machines and electronic currencies – will be monitored by the Federal Revenue Service. Economists consulted by the report explained that this does not mean that everyone who spent more than R$5,000 will be taxed or fined. What happens is that, when declaring Income Tax (IR), anyone who does not prove the origin of the income or makes errors in the declaration may be subject to fines and the payment of taxes considered evaded by the Federal Revenue Service. In a note, the Federal Revenue Service denied that it had created new taxes.
The government did not create fees for those who move more than R$5,000 per month. Photo: Repro
Find out more: The new RFB Normative Instruction No. 2,219/24, in force since January 1, 2025, changes the monitoring of financial transactions carried out by individuals and legal entities. According to the IRS, the change does not imply new taxes or fees. The focus is on crossing data to prevent tax evasion. The monitored values will be recorded in the 2026 Income Tax declaration.
Economist Arthur Bos de Oliveira, from the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (FCE-UFRGS), explains that the Normative Instruction only establishes that financial institutions must present information to the Federal Revenue Service when transactions exceed the limits. People who exceed the established limits must declare these amounts, under penalty of being fined by Leão.
The researcher and professor at the Faculty of Economics, Administration and Accounting of Ribeirão Preto (FEA RP-USP) Fernando Barros emphasizes that the Federal Revenue Service is not responsible for fining financial transactions. “The institution checks, for example, the Income Tax declaration and will analyze whether there are suspicious financial movements and undeclared resources”, he explained. “So it may be that the IRS will charge the tax due and a possible fine, if applicable. But simple financial transactions do not generate a fine.”
According to Barros, the measure aims to generate revenue and increase tax collection, but does not create new fees. “Brazil has a big fiscal problem and the federal government is increasingly committed to bringing resources, with collection being done through taxes”, he pointed out. “I see this monitoring mechanism as one of the main tools for this task.”
-Banking secrecy remains the same, according to experts
Oliveira highlighted that banking secrecy has not changed with the new Normative Instruction. “The information that is made available by financial and payment institutions is only that which allows users to be identified,” he said.
According to professor Luciano Nakabashi, from the Faculty of Economics, Administration and Accounting of Ribeirão Preto (FEA RP-USP), the IRS does not receive information about what the purchase was or who received it. One of the Tax Authorities’ intentions is precisely to cross-check this payment or receipt information with what people fill out in their income tax declaration. This will be done to check if they find any inconsistencies. “If it is found, the person falls into the fine mesh and then has to justify the inconsistencies or will pay more tax”, he commented.
In some cases, the use of shared credit cards or receipt for performing “odd jobs” without invoices can cause problems. In this sense, Barros details that joint expenses or extra income can be proven in IR. The taxpayer must add dependents or include “receipt from other sources”.
“If everything is being done correctly, in accordance with the law, it is possible to prove later that that credit card, for example, is used by the entire family”, he explained. “There are ways to prove certain movements at the time of the Income Declaration, I don’t think it creates any major problems in this sense”.
Nakabashi points out that, if the IRS suspects high expenses that are not compatible with income, it will be necessary to explain the situation. “In any case, banking institutions already passed the information to the IRS,” he stated.
