Brazil Reduces Tax Rate Threshold for Designation as a Low tax Jurisdiction or Privileged Tax Regime

Brazil has recently published Ordinance 488/2014 in the Official Gazette. The ordinance lowers the tax rate threshold for a jurisdiction's designation as a low tax jurisdiction (LTJ) or privileged tax regime (PTR) from 20% or lower to 17% or lower. Although the change will exclude certain jurisdictions from Brazil's LTJ black list and PTR grey list, other conditions remain for inclusion in the lists, including:

• When a Jurisdiction's laws provide for corporate confidentially, or does not rele…