Split payment: how Brazil's tax reform affects companies

Split payment: what changes for companies in the 2026 tests

Brazil’s tax reform is now on the calendar. In 2026, the first split payment tests go live, and the change that will bother treasury most is not the tax rate but the route the money takes.

Today, the tax generated by a sale passes through the company’s cash before reaching the tax authorities. That interval, known as tax float, works as an informal source of working capital for many operations. With split payment, the tax is withheld at financial settlement itself and never enters the company’s account.

It is not a higher tax burden. It is a change in cash dynamics that requires replanning before 2027.

What is split payment?

Under the current tax model, the company receives the full amount of the sale and then pays the taxes due. There is a gap between those two moments, and that gap is where part of many operations’ working capital breathes.

Split payment eliminates that gap. Under the mechanism, at the moment a transaction settles financially, part of the amount paid by the buyer is sent automatically to the tax authorities. The net amount reaches the company’s account. The tax has already been withheld.

The mechanism was created to collect two new taxes under the reform: the IBS (Imposto sobre Bens e Serviços, a tax on goods and services), which will replace ICMS and ISS, and the CBS (Contribuição sobre Bens e Serviços, a federal contribution on goods and services), which will replace PIS and Cofins. Together, they make up Brazil’s so-called dual VAT. Split payment is the operational gear that connects financial settlement directly to the collection of these taxes.

The 2026 test already has a date

On June 3, 2026, the Receita Federal (Brazil’s federal tax authority) and the IBS Management Committee published in the Diário Oficial (the federal official gazette) the Integration Manual and technical documentation for the Public Split Payment Platform. The goal is to let payment service providers start developing their integration solutions. It marks the official start of technological preparation for the mechanism.

The timeline is set as follows: 2026 is the test year, with no actual payment of IBS or CBS. From August 2026, the CBS becomes mandatory on tax documents for companies outside Simples Nacional (the simplified tax regime for small businesses), although the test rate is not collected. Actual implementation begins in 2027, with priority for transactions via Pix and boleto. Debit and credit cards come in later stages.

For the finance manager, the message is clear: 2026 is the adjustment period without penalties. Failing to use this interval to map impacts and review processes means throwing away the only window in which mistakes cost nothing.

Tax float disappears from treasury

This is the most concrete impact of split payment on cash management.

Today, the tax received in a transaction stays in the company’s account for up to 30 days before it is paid. This tax float isn’t in any treasury manual, but it works as real liquidity, especially for companies with a high volume of receipts.

With split payment, that money never enters the account. The company receives only the net amount of each transaction.

The mismatch is especially critical in installment sales. A company receiving payments at 90 or 120 days has the tax withheld when each installment settles, while it is still waiting for the rest of the payment. Available working capital shrinks before total revenue has come in. Those who don’t model this impact before 2027 will feel it in their cash.

Your company isn’t the one executing the split

This is the point most often overlooked in the split payment discussion.

Withholding the tax at financial settlement is not the direct responsibility of the selling company. It is the responsibility of the payment service provider (PSP) that processes the transaction. Banks, processors and payment institutions integrate their systems with the Public Split Payment Platform and set the amounts aside automatically at settlement.

For treasury, this has a direct implication: the operational maturity of your payments provider becomes a compliance factor. A processor that hasn’t completed the integration, or that doesn’t operate reliably at high volume, creates regulatory risk for the company, not for itself.

Choosing who processes your payments moves out of the cost-per-transaction conversation and into the operational-risk one.

A change that starts in tax ends in the ERP

Split payment forces finance to work with tax, accounting, technology and compliance in a more integrated way than happens today.

Bank reconciliation processes will need to be adapted, since the amount received in the account no longer reflects the gross amount of the sale. ERPs and financial platforms will need to distinguish the net amount received from the tax amount withheld to ensure correct tax assessment. Cash flow controls will need to project revenue based on the post-split amount, not on the invoiced amount.

Companies that rely on manual reconciliation or spreadsheets to close their cash will find a real bottleneck in the transition. Not because of the complexity of the mechanism itself, but because of how fast the finance operation will need to respond to data that today arrives late or is reconciled outside the system.

What to prepare before the test phase ends

The 2026 window exists precisely for this. Actions that make sense to start now:

1. Calculate the impact of tax float on your current operation. What is the average volume of taxes in transit in your cash? For how many days? That number estimates the drop in liquidity split payment will cause once it takes effect.
2. Review receivables terms under the new model. Installment sales or late-paying receivables need to be remodeled to absorb the mismatch between tax withholding and actual cash inflow.
3. Assess your payments infrastructure with your current processor. Integration with the Public Split Payment Platform is the PSP’s responsibility. It is worth understanding how far along your provider is and whether its integration timeline fits the regulatory calendar.
4. Map the systems and integrations that will need to handle the distinction between gross invoiced amount and net amount received. ERP, reconciliation platforms and cash flow statement (DFC) reports are the points with the highest risk of inconsistency.
5. Follow the regulatory calendar actively. The technical documentation was published in June. From August, the CBS already appears on tax documents. Each new publication brings specifications that directly affect the operation.

Split payment doesn’t create a new tax. It changes who controls the money during the transaction, and that difference has real consequences for the working capital of anyone who doesn’t prepare before 2027.

Your operation’s payments infrastructure needs to be ready before split payment takes effect. Trio is a Payment Institution certified by the Central Bank of Brazil and is already preparing for the new model. Explore Trio’s corporate account and see what it’s like to process with a partner that is one step ahead of the change.