The Federal Revenue Secretary, Robinson Barreirinhas, said on Wednesday (3) that fintechs (startups of the financial sector) will have to pass on to the tax authorities information about financial movements in a retroactive manner, since January this year. 
Last week, the recipe published normative instruction to establish that to the fintechs must be subject to the same rules as banksregarding the obligation to provide information that leads to fight crimes such as money laundering. The decision was made after the outbreak of operations that dismantled a connection scheme between organized crime, the financial sector and fuel companies.
Because of the wave of fake news on a possible charge of taxes on the pix, the revenue revoked in January this year a normative instruction on the provision of information on instant transfers. The revocation, in practice, impaired the supervision of fintechs.
“The lies, yes, helped organized crime. We have corrected now on Friday and we will ask for data retroactively in January. From this information, I’m sure that more things will be found related to this type of problem,” Barreirinhas said when participating in a public hearing at the House Finance and Taxation Commission on Wednesday.
According to the secretary, the bodies responsible for Operation Hidden Carbon will only disclose the names of gas stations involved with organized crime and adulteration of products after being sure of their participation. The operation brought together federal and state agencies in document seizure actions and arrest of suspects. The scheme may have moved $ 80 billion and involved the addition of methanol in fuel. Up to a thousand posts in ten states may have been hit.
Federal Revenue Secretary, Robinson Barreirinhas, during a public hearing at the Chamber’s Finance and Taxation Commission – Photo: Lula Marques/Agência Brasil
Commission parliamentarians charged the list of posts, alleging consumer protection. Barreirinhas said caution is necessary not to harm innocent people.
“Why don’t we talk about names? To avoid making a mistake of past operations where the Trigo chaff has not been separated before and broke companies, they broke business sectors for lack of caution. We can’t demonize without being absolutely sure of whom we are taking,” he said.
According to him, the financial scheme also used people without connection with the crimes. The money went through accounts of fintechs and traditional banks, in so-called-Boller Accounts. Then it was applied to investment funds and, at the end, in regular businesses. So suitable people could turn into criminals unknowingly.
Barreirinhas recalled that previous operations of revenue against smuggling of cigarettes and illegal bets also involved fintechs. Therefore, in 2024, the government had issued a normative instruction to give transparency to the operations of these digital banks, which was eventually revoked after the dissemination of fake news About PIX taxation.
In defending the need to expand the inspection, the secretary stressed that the objective is not to reach all digital institutions, which contribute to financial inclusion. But reported that the provisional measure 1,303/25 provides for punishment fintechs who act with bets illegal.
*With information from the Chamber of News Agency
