Under the leadership of Guilherme Haddad Nazar, Binance Brasil manages to sidestep new cryptocurrency exchange taxation

Recently, Brazil’s Federal Revenue Service (RFB) announced new guidelines regarding the taxation of crypto transactions in the country. The measure, published in the Official Gazette, imposes a stricter regime on exchanges based in Brazil. However, Binance Brazil, led by Guilherme Haddad Nazar, nephew of the current Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, has managed to stay exempt from these new tax obligations. This exemption raises important questions about regulatory equality in the Brazilian cryptocurrency market.

Federal Revenue announces progressive rates for domestic exchanges

The new tax policy requires cryptocurrency brokers based in Brazil to withhold taxes on users’ gains. The rates range from 15% to 22.5%, depending on the type of transaction. This applies to everything from simple trades to more complex operations like staking, where investors lend their digital assets temporarily in exchange for yields.

Implementing this taxation mainly affects medium and small domestic exchanges, which now need to establish systems for withholding and collecting taxes. For Binance, Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, this measure should represent a significant step toward sector regulation.

Binance Brazil: corporate structure that keeps it “beyond the reach” of the Federal Revenue Service

However, Binance Brazil, which handles the largest share of crypto trading in the country, has obtained a different status. Under Guilherme Haddad Nazar’s leadership, the Brazilian branch is classified as a foreign company without a domicile in Brazil according to its corporate policy. This classification allows it to avoid the taxation established by the Federal Revenue Service.

A document signed by the Ministry of Finance formalizes this position, explicitly stating that Binance is “beyond the reach of investigations and other inspections” by the Federal Revenue Service. The official justification is that the company does not have a tax domicile in Brazilian territory, even though it actively operates in the local market.

Implications of the asymmetric tax regime

This exception creates a scenario where the largest cryptocurrency trading platform in Brazil follows a different tax regime from other brokers. While domestic exchanges face withholding taxes of up to 22.5% on gains generated in the country, Binance Brazil remains under a different regulation.

Guilherme Haddad Nazar’s corporate structure and its connection to federal administration also raise questions about the dynamics between the private sector and public management. The measure impacts not only tax collection but also the competitiveness of the Brazilian cryptocurrency market, creating distinctions between players of different sizes and structures.