On March 5, 2020, the Chamber of Deputies approved international agreements to avoid double taxation of income and tax evasion with Switzerland, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates. The texts of the agreements now receiving legislative approval by the corresponding Decrees (203/2019, Singapore; 650/2019, Switzerland; and 667/2019, United Arab Emirates) were signed in 2018 and sent to Congress last year.

The agreements in question intend to avoid taxation in more than one jurisdiction of profits, dividends, royalties and other income received by individuals or companies. Therefore, the country can only tax income originating in that country.

The main objective of the agreements is to improve the business climate between the pairs of countries involved, by providing greater legal certainty for the occurrence of transactions. Besides this, the agreements also have provisions specifying the exchange of information between the tax administrations of the countries, to deter tax evasion.

With approval by the Chamber of Deputies, the decrees now have been sent to the Senate for analysis.

The Tax Department of Castro Barros is available for any clarifications that may be necessary.