Receita Federal changes how the IRRF holding period resets on private-pension portability
Under COSIT Ruling No. 172/2026, anyone who ports or migrates reserves between private-pension plans under the regressive tax regime restarts the accumulation-period clock, and can fall back to a higher IRRF withholding rate.
On the record: Brazil's Receita Federal (the federal tax authority) published, on September 3, COSIT Ruling (Solução de Consulta) No. 172/2026, clarifying that, under the regressive taxation regime for private pension plans (PGBL, VGBL and closed/EFPC plans), the date of a portability or migration between plans becomes the new starting point for counting the accumulation period used to set the withholding income-tax (IRRF) rate. Time already accrued under the original plan is not carried over.
In practice, this means a participant who ports their reserves to another plan or another provider becomes subject again to the higher rate under the regressive regime (35%) for the first two years after the portability, even if they were already close to reaching a lower bracket (as low as 10%) under the previous plan. The Receita Federal also clarified that the change introduced by Law No. 14,803/2024 did not alter this understanding.
This matters for companies that offer a corporate private-pension plan as a benefit, one of the most common items in compensation packages for leadership and mid-to-senior earners. A change of plan administrator, a migration between company-sponsored plans, or a restructuring of the benefits plan can, without HR or the employee immediately realizing it, reset a tax-counting period the employee had been accruing for years, producing a higher IRRF withholding than expected at redemption.
This lands directly on the radar of whoever handles compensation, benefits and payroll administration: poor communication, or no communication at all, about this side effect of a corporate pension-plan portability is a common source of complaints and friction with employees, even though the rule itself comes from the Receita Federal, not from the company.
We use technology and Artificial Intelligence to map, with each company, where private-pension benefits and the related payroll deductions are most exposed to this kind of unexpected tax effect. If your company doesn't yet have this X-ray of its own payroll, the free Payroll Risk Check (5 minutes) is a good place to start.
Has your company already told employees who recently ported a private-pension plan about this effect on their IRRF holding-period count?