Brazil’s Federal Revenue Service has published its 2026 Questions and Answers guide on the Rural Land Tax (ITR), clarifying rules on tax incidence, exemptions, taxable land areas, tax calculations, and DITR filing and payment requirements.
Brazil’s tax authority, the Federal Revenue Service (RFB) has published its 2026 Questions and Answers guide on the Rural Land Tax (ITR), prepared by the General Coordination of Taxation (Cosit) on 1 September 2026.
This 2026 technical manual from the Brazilian Federal Revenue Service provides a comprehensive guide to the Rural Territorial Property Tax (ITR). Through a structured series of questions and answers, the document clarifies essential concepts such as taxable incidents, legal exemptions, and the specific criteria for environmental immunity. It details the obligations of landowners and possessors, highlighting the necessity of registering property data in the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR).
The guide also explains how expropriations, land reform settlements, and various agricultural activities impact tax calculations. By defining the Value of Bare Land (VTN) and procedural requirements for declarations, the source aims to standardise the application of tax law for both citizens and public officials.
The guide addresses the following main areas:
- Tax incidence, immunities, and exemptions: What the ITR is, its tax-triggering events (fato gerador), annual tax periods, and the specific requirements for tax immunity and exemptions (such as for small rural properties, indigenous lands, agrarian reform settlements, and quilombola communities).
- Taxpayers and responsibilities: Rules defining who is a taxpayer (owners, usufructuaries, possessors) and who is responsible for the tax liabilities in scenarios like property acquisition, succession, expropriation, or death.
- Property area classification: Guidelines on how to compose and classify rural property areas—specifically defining taxable areas, non-taxable areas (such as Permanent Preservation Areas, Legal Reserves, and ecological interest zones), and utilised vs unutilised land.
- Tax calculation: Methods to calculate the tax base (Valor da Terra Nua Tributável – VTNt) based on the market price of the bare land (VTN), the degree of land utilisation, and the corresponding tax rates.
- Declaration and payment: Operational rules for submitting the annual declaration (DITR, which includes Diac and Diat), deadlines, fines for late filing, rectification, and payment methods (including bank documents, Pix, instalments, and Agrarian Debt Bonds – TDA).
- Special regional boundaries: Delineation of specific regions—such as Western/Eastern Amazonia, the Pantanal, and the Polígono das Secas—which determine limits for area-based tax exemptions and parameters.
