Brazil

Brazil splits the life of a nonprofit across three levels of government.

• Local registry, under state supervision. An association or a foundation exists legally once its founding act and bylaws are registered at a Civil Registry of Legal Entities (Cartório de Registro Civil de Pessoas Jurídicas) in the city where it is based. Registries are private offices delegated by the State, supervised by each state’s court of justice, under national rules set by the National Council of Justice (CNJ).
• Federal tax ID. It then enrolls in the national register of legal entities (CNPJ) at the Federal Revenue Service (Receita Federal). The CNPJ is the number funders use to identify it.
• State prosecutor for foundations. A foundation is also overseen by the public prosecutor’s office (Ministério Público) of the state where it operates: the prosecutor approves its bylaws and their amendments and receives its annual accounts. Associations have no such external supervisor.
• Federal, state or municipal qualifications. On top of its legal form, an SGO may hold qualifications granted at different levels (next panel). The federal “public utility” title no longer exists since 2015; state and municipal versions do.

Civil Code arts. 44, 45, 62–69; Law 6,015/1973; Law 8,935/1994; CNJ national rules for registries; Receita Federal (CNPJ); Law 13,204/2015.

• Association (associação): people united for a non-economic purpose. The general assembly governs; the bylaws set how accounts are approved.
• Foundation (fundação): an endowment dedicated to a purpose the law lists (social assistance, culture, education, health, environment, research, human rights and others), under the state prosecutor’s oversight.

Qualifications add rights and duties:

• OSCIP (federal, Ministry of Justice; Law 9,790/1999): requires three years of operation and a fiscal council. It allows partnership agreements (termos de parceria) with government, and requires publicity of the annual report and financial statements at year-end.
• OS, Social Organization (Law 9,637/1998, with state and municipal equivalents): allows management contracts with public budget and assets; financial reports are published yearly in the official gazette.
• CEBAS (federal; Complementary Law 187/2021): certification for health, education and social assistance entities. It brings immunity from social security contributions, and an independent audit above R$ 4.8 million of revenue.
• OSC under the MROSC (Law 13,019/2014): not a title, but the general regime for any nonprofit that signs a partnership with government.
• State or municipal public utility: local titles granted under state and municipal laws.

Tax-exempt status is not a pass on reporting. Like any company, an exempt or immune SGO files with the Federal Revenue Service.

• ECF, the annual tax-accounting return: required of all legal entities, “including immune and exempt” ones. Due on the last business day of July for the previous year (July 31, 2026, for 2025).
• ECD, the digital accounting books: required of immune and exempt SGOs whose revenue, donations and grants reach R$ 4.8 million in the year. Due on the last business day of June (June 30, 2026).
• Monthly filings: payroll through eSocial and DCTFWeb, and withholdings through EFD-Reinf. The former DIRF return was replaced from 2025.
• To keep its immunity or exemption, the SGO must keep complete books and keep its supporting documents for five years.

These returns go to the tax authority, which is bound by tax secrecy and does not publish them. Nothing prevents an SGO from making its own figures public; the law simply does not require it.

If a return is late. The law provides for sanctions. For an exempt or immune SGO, a late ECF or ECD can be fined 0.02% of gross revenue per day, up to 1%, halved if the SGO files before the tax authority acts; late payroll and withholding filings carry their own fines. More seriously, filing the annual returns is one of the conditions of immunity and exemption: if the conditions are not met, the Federal Revenue Service can suspend them, after a formal notice and 30 days to respond. There is no extension to request. How often these sanctions are applied to nonprofits is not documented in public statistics; rulings of the administrative tax court (CARF) show that suspensions and fines do occur, and are sometimes overturned.

Normative Instructions RFB 2,003/2021 (ECD) and 2,004/2021 (ECF); Law 9,532/1997, arts. 12 and 15; National Tax Code (CTN), art. 198 (tax secrecy), as applied in Receita Federal guidance (Cosit Note 206/2022); Receita Federal FAQ pages dated April–September 2026. Sanctions: Law 8,218/1991, art. 12; Law 8,212/1991, art. 32-A; IN RFB 2,043/2021; National Tax Code, art. 14 §1; Law 9,430/1996, art. 32; Law 9,532/1997, arts. 12 and 15.

• CEBAS: financial statements audited by an independent auditor registered with a Regional Accounting Council, when gross revenue (donations included) exceeds R$ 4.8 million.
• OSCIP: independent audit required when its partnership agreements with government reach R$ 600,000 (an amount unchanged since 1999).
• Foundations: the national rule for state prosecutors sets no audit threshold; an audit report is filed with the accounts when there is one. Some states may set their own.
• Other associations: no general legal duty to have their accounts audited.
• Accounting follows the Federal Accounting Council’s standard for nonprofit entities, ITG 2002 (R1).

Complementary Law 187/2021, art. 3; Decree 11,791/2023, art. 5; Decree 3,100/1999, art. 19; CNMP Resolution 300/2024, art. 34; CFC, ITG 2002 (R1).

• Partnerships under the MROSC: an SGO working with public money must list every partnership on its website and at its premises: dates, public body, purpose, amounts, and where its accounts stand. Final accounts go to the funding body within 90 days of the end of the partnership, or yearly for longer ones.
• Access to Information Law: a nonprofit receiving public funds must answer for that money and how it was used.
• Federal funds: the SGO publishes its bylaws, its directors, its agreements and their final accounts, from signature until 180 days after the final accounts are filed.

Law 13,019/2014, arts. 11 and 69; Law 12,527/2011, art. 2; Decree 7,724/2012, art. 63.

• Income tax: education and social assistance institutions are immune under the Constitution; other nonprofit associations (philanthropic, cultural, scientific) are exempt by law. Both conditions include no distribution of income and books kept.
• Social security contributions: immunity for CEBAS-certified entities.
• Tax on gifts (ITCMD): a state tax, so the rate depends on the state, up to 8%. The 2023 tax reform exempts gifts to nonprofits “of public and social relevance”, under conditions set by Complementary Law 227/2026; the SGO must file a declaration with the state tax authority.
• Donors: companies can deduct gifts up to 2% of operating profit to qualifying SGOs. Individuals deduct only through incentive channels (children’s and elderly funds, culture, sport, health programs), within a shared cap on tax due.

Constitution arts. 150, 155, 195; Constitutional Amendment 132/2023; Complementary Laws 187/2021 and 227/2026; Law 9,532/1997; Law 9,249/1995, art. 13.

For most associations and foundations, Brazilian law sets no duty, and no deadline, to make the annual report or the financial statements public.

• OSCIPs must give publicity to their annual report and financial statements “at the close of the fiscal year”, by any effective means. No date is set.
• Social Organizations (OS) publish their financial reports yearly in the official gazette. No date is set.
• OSCIPs with government partnerships publish an extract of each partnership’s execution in the official gazette within 60 days after year-end. It covers the partnership only, not the full accounts.
• Foundations file their accounts with the state prosecutor by a date each state sets (for 2025 accounts: July 31, 2026, in São Paulo; September 30 in Minas Gerais). Filing is not publishing.
• CEBAS entities submit audited statements to the certifying ministry; no duty to publish them was found.

So when an SGO in Brazil makes these documents public, and how soon, is largely its own choice. That is what thedotgood‘s info-biorhythm measures.

Civil Code art. 54; Law 9,790/1999, art. 4, VII; Law 9,637/1998, art. 2; Decree 3,100/1999, art. 18; CNMP Resolution 300/2024, art. 33; São Paulo and Minas Gerais prosecutors’ pages (2026).

• CNPJ lookup, Federal Revenue Service: status, legal form, address, main activity.
• Bylaws and minutes: certified copies, for a fee, from the registry where the SGO is registered.
• Mapa das OSCs (IPEA): a public map of Brazilian civil society organizations.
• Portal da Transparência and Transferegov: federal transfers and partnerships, and the list of nonprofits barred from federal funds (CEPIM).
• CEBAS lists (education, health, social assistance) and the OSCIP list of the Ministry of Justice.
• The official gazette: OS financial reports, OSCIP partnership extracts, CEBAS decisions.
• The SGO’s own website, where most annual reports and statements appear, when they do.