On April 26, 2023, Decree 11,498/23 was published, which, among other measures, extended the list of sectors of the economy that may have investment projects considered a priority and, consequently, eligible for the tax benefits established by Law 12,431/11 .

The tax benefits in the case of issuance of incentivized debentures or incentivized certificates, pursuant to article 2 of the aforementioned law 12,431/2011, are: (i) exemption from the tax rate on individual income; and (ii) the reduction to 15% of the corporate income tax rate; in any case, resident or domiciled in the country.

With the new Decree, which changed the wording of Decree 8.874/16, the following sectors, alongside those that already made up the list, were considered priority:

• education;
• health;
• public security and prison system;
• urban parks and conservation units;
   
• cultural and sports equipment;
• social housing and urban regeneration.

It is believed, therefore, that obtaining credit by companies operating in such sectors should become "cheaper", as they will be able to attract a wider range of people interested in investing resources in certain securities with incentives.

It is important to remember that the effects of the new regulation will apply to debentures and certificates issued from January 1, 2024. In addition, the amount to be raised cannot exceed the capital expenditure foreseen for the project, excluding financial expenses, under the terms of §7, article 2, of decree 8.874/16, as amended by decree 11.498/23 under discussion.

It should also be noted that the Minister of Finance may, upon publication of an Ordinance, establish the maximum annual volume for issuing securities with such tax benefits, and may even discriminate the volume according to the sectors of the economy.

n order to be classified as a priority, the projects must be submitted to the respective responsible ministries, which will have the function of disciplining the necessary requirements for approval and the way of monitoring the implementation, according to articles 3 and 4 of Decree nº 8.874/2016.

According to the Ministry of Finance, in an Informative Bulletin released in December 2022, incentivized debentures moved approximately R$ 42.8 billion in 2022. In addition, 28.9% of the total volume of debentures traded between January 2021 and December 2022 were "incentivized", data that demonstrate the relevance of this type of funding in the Brazilian capital market.