Brazil's finance minister shelves crypto tax policy due to election: Report

The South American country will hold its presidential election in October 2026, and incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is running for re-election.

Brazil’s Finance Minister, Dario Durigan, is putting crypto tax policy on the back burner until after the country’s presidential elections in October 2026 to avoid pushing for “divisive” tax changes during an election year. 

Regulators and government officials originally slated a public consultation on crypto tax policy for later this year, which may be delayed until 2027, but still “remains on the radar,” sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Brazil ended its no tax policy on gains from smaller cryptocurrency sales or transfers in June 2025, shifting to a 17.5% flat tax on crypto capital gains, including those made from offshore and self-custodial holdings.

Under the previous rules, residents who sold up to 35,000 Brazilian real, equivalent to about $6,587, per month were exempt from capital gains taxes on any profits, and investors who surpassed this threshold were subject to progressive tax rates between 15% and 22.5%.

In November 2025, Banco Central do Brasil, the country’s central bank, published rules that treat stablecoin transfers as foreign currency exchange, subject to the same tax laws.

The Brazilian government is also eyeing proposals to tax cryptocurrencies used for international payments and is aligning its reporting rules to be consistent with regulations under the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), an international monitoring standard for crypto transactions.

The decision to place the crypto tax consultation on hiatus comes during a time when the South American country is rapidly adopting crypto, and the industry is growing in Brazil.

Related: Brazil's Pix instant payment system expands to Argentina

Brazil ranks number five on Chainalysis’s crypto Global Adoption Index and ranks number one in terms of adoption in the Latin America region.

The country has a population of over 213 million people, with a median age of 33.5 years, and over 91% of the population lives in urban areas, according to data from Worldometer.

In 2025, “Latin America’s crypto adoption grew by 63%, reflecting rising adoption across both retail and institutional segments,” according to Chainalysis.

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Source: CoinTelegraph