On January 1, 2026, the new rules regarding the declaration of ultimate beneficial owner introduced by Normative Instruction RFB No. 2,290/2025 came into effect.

The update of the regulation aims to improve registration transparency, strengthen integrity mechanisms, and align Brazil with international best practices in combating money laundering, tax evasion, and corruption.

• Creation of an official channel for providing information on ultimate beneficial owners: the e‑BEF – Digital Ultimate Beneficial Owners Form was created as an electronic system developed by the Brazilian Federal Revenue Service for the submission of information on ultimate beneficial owners.

• Periodicity for submitting the declarations: under the new regulation, the deadlines for filing the declaration are now as follows:

• Strengthening of the criteria for identifying the beneficial owner: the new regulation introduced a specific rule stating that administrators of foreign companies who are not shareholders or partners of the entity are not to be considered ultimate beneficial owners. In addition, the regulation established the requirement to identify the beneficial owner using their CPF number or, if they are not registered with the CPF, with the following information: full name, date of birth, identification document indicating the issuing country, country of tax residence of the declarant, nationality, place of birth, residential address, and email address.

• Identification of administrators: if there is no natural person who meets the criteria to be considered a beneficial owner under Article 53 of Normative Instruction RFB No. 2,119, those who exercise management or control of the entity must be reported as the beneficial owners.

• Duty to retain supporting documents: the documents supporting the declaration must be kept by the reporting entity for five years, counted from the date of the entity’s dissolution or from the moment the beneficial owner ceases to hold that status.

• Deadline and phased implementation schedule for submitting the declaration:t he regulation also established a progressive timeline for the mandatory submission of the e‑BEF:

  As of January 1, 2026:

  > simple partnerships and limited liability companies that have another legal entity as a partner, regardless of revenue;
  > closely held corporations (sociedades anônimas fechadas);
  > foreign entities that have a branch in Brazil or that are partners of Brazilian companies;
  > non‑profit entities that act as fiduciary administrators; or
  third‑party asset managers.
  
  

  As of January 1, 2027:

  > simple partnerships and limited liability companies that do not have legal entities as > partners and whose revenue exceeds BRL 78 million;
  > foreign entities that invest in the financial and capital markets; and
  non‑profit entities that receive public funds, except autonomous social services (serviços sociais autônomos).
  
  

  As of January 1, 2028:

  > simple partnerships and limited liability companies that do not have legal entities as > partners and whose revenue exceeds BRL 4.8 million;
  > pension investment funds and pension funds (fundos de pensão);
  > pension entities; and
  > similar institutions domiciled in Brazil or abroad.

Consequences of non‑compliance with the regulation: entities that fail to submit the e‑BEF, or that submit it with omissions or inaccuracies, will be notified to remedy the deficiency within 30 days. If the irregularities are not corrected, the entity’s CNPJ registration may be suspended and its bank transactions may be blocked. In addition, the new regulation provides that any person who provides false information in the ultimate beneficial owner declaration may, in principle, be subject to the crime of ideological falsehood (falsidade ideológica) under the Brazilian Penal Code.

Finally, it is important to highlight that the ultimate beneficial owner declarations submitted before January 1, 2026, which were still under review by the Federal Revenue Service, were cancelled ex officio. The reporting entity must therefore submit a new declaration within the newly established deadline.