In response to a formal inquiry from a taxpayer on a specific case, the Federal Revenue Secretariat issued a relevant ruling on the legal nature of cryptoassets and operations involving products from this market.

In this case, the ruling labled COSIT Consultation Solution 83/2024 defined that the lease of this type of asset is equivalent to a financial investment. In practice, this meant that the consulting taxpayer must tax the transaction at higher rates than he could if it were a rental transaction of other types of more common movable or immovable property.

However, beyond this definition, which has normative enforceability only for the specific case, the level of in-depth discussion carried out in the case draws attention. The auditor carefully analyzed the nature of cryptoassets, ruling out, for example, the classification as a computer program, remunerated with software licensing royalties, which also has specific tax rules. The rationale for the position was well demonstrated by defining that these are fungible assets, and that the remuneration for the transfer of the use of these assets is not classified as “rent”, but rather as “interest”.

Thus, the legal rules for this type of operation are increasingly being consolidated in Brazilian law, which comes from the regulatory framework (Law 14,478/2022) and evolves with detailed concepts such as those of the Federal Revenue Service’s position to define them as financial market products. For tax purposes, this definition has a great impact, as financial institutions are notably taxed at the highest rates and subject to a greater number of ancillary obligations and constant tax inspections.