Already known as a worldwide leader in technology-driven tax compliance, Brazil has announced several changes and additions to its requirements starting in 2017. These changes, designed to close reporting loopholes and gather even more information to improve validations, affect Brazil’s e-invoicing and transportation tracking processes, as well as introduce new measures to monitor social security and inventory details.
A Closer Look at NFe 4.0
Nota Fiscal (NFe) version 4.0 marks the first new release of Brazil’s e-invoicing schema in two years, and companies can expect a major change from their previous compliance processes. NFe 4.0 requires a new XML structure, new fields, new data, new communication protocols and new web services, impacting both IT and business users.
Currently, businesses are able to test and validate NFe under the new requirements. Effective October 2, 2017, all NFe will be validated using the new parameters under 4.0, and as of April 2, 2018, version 3.1 will be completely sunset.
Major changes under NFe 4.0 include:
- Changes to web services: Because of the new security protocols, all of web services need to be changed.
- New fields for shipping information
- New calculations to line item poverty fund contributions
- New field to identify payment method (check, cash, credit card)
Other changes specifically affect key industries, including:
- Sanitary products (agricultural, veterinary, dentistry, medicines, beverages, bottled water, packaging, etc.): These companies are required to include batch number, quantity, production date and expiration date for added insights in the event of a recall.
- Oil and gas: Additional fields, codes and calculations are required for energy companies.
- Medical and pharmaceuticals: These companies have to submit new fields to supply the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA) with added information.
The biggest challenge that NFe 4.0 presents to companies in Brazil is determining the IT and business process changes that will need to be adopted in order to maintain compliance. Contact us for an assessment.
CTe Freight Tracking Expands
On December 4, 2017, the previous version of CTe will be sunset in favor of a new version that is currently in the production environment. CTe version 3.0, which must be collected, validated and archived for all freight charges, includes changes to several fields:
Time zone must now be added to the date field
The maximum number of characters allowed in tags has increased
New tags for transportation type and multi-modal transit
Since CTe directly affects a company’s ability to ship, understanding how these changes will impact your business processes is critical. Any errors or transmission issues can shut down your supply chain, making effective compliance critical to keep operations running smoothly.
Post by Gustavo Jimenez
Take Action
Stay tuned for details on other changes in Brazil compliance, including REINF social security reporting and Bloco K inventory tracking, coming in Parts 2 and 3 of this series. In the meantime, watch our On-Demand Webinar: Understanding Brazil NFe 4.0 changes in 2017 for more details on Brazil’s e-invoicing updates.
