IBS/CBS Split Payment: RFB and CGIBS Finalize Package of 6 Technical Manuals for the Public Platform (Joint Act No. 5/2026)

One more piece of the split payment puzzle is in place

Last week, the Federal Revenue Service and the IBS Management Committee (CGIBS) took a significant step in building the infrastructure that will support the split payment system for IBS and CBS. Joint Technical Act RFB/SUARA/CGIBS/Executive Board No. 5 was signed on September 22, 2026, and published on September 23, in a special edition of the Official Gazette. The act approves the technical documentation with procedures and operational standards applicable to the Public Split Payment Platform, applicable to both CBS and IBS.

What was approved, exactly

Six documents were approved: Operations Manual (version 1.0.1), Integration Manual (version 1.1.1), openAPI document (version 1.1.1), Timing Manual (version 1.0.1), Network Manual (version 1.0.1), and Security Manual (version 1.0.0). For those following the timeline, it's worth understanding the evolution:

• Joint Act RFB/CGIBS No. 2/2026 (05/27/2026): the first batch of documentation, with the Integration Manual, which defines the architecture, flows, and construction rules of the Public Platform, and the Swagger, which specifies in a standardized and interactive way the resources available in the API.
• Joint Technical Act No. 4/2026 (08/28/2026): brought the Participant Onboarding Manual, version 1.0.0, and the Network Manual, version 1.0.0, detailing accreditation requirements and connectivity standards.
• Joint Technical Act No. 5/2026 (09/22-23/2026): raises the version of the Integration Manual and the openAPI to 1.1.1, and adds two previously unreleased documents — the Timing Manual (SLAs and processing windows) and the Security Manual (data protection protocols for information exchange between institutions and the Tax Authority).

In practice, the technical package has stopped being just a conceptual architecture and now includes the operational elements that were missing for payment institutions and developers to certify their solutions: response times, network requirements, and security layers.

Why this matters to tax, accounting, and IT teams even without immediate mandatory compliance

It's tempting to treat this type of act as a matter only for banks and fintechs. But the overall split payment timeline is already clearer, and it's worth keeping three points in mind:

• The Federal Revenue Service expects split payment to become mandatory in Brazil starting in 2028, with the new system's platform able to operate as early as the beginning of 2027, noting that the 2028 target refers to the general requirement of the mechanism, not to the start of its operation.
• The Federal Revenue Service's plan is for the split payment platform to be ready by the beginning of 2027, when the system will begin to be offered gradually and optionally in B2B operations, a period during which each company will be able to choose, transaction by transaction, whether to adopt the new flow or continue with the traditional collection model.
• Until it becomes mandatory, taxes will continue to be collected via Darf, with normal issuance of tax documents, and the Buyer Withholding (RAD) will be available as an alternative starting in early 2027, also on an optional basis.

In other words: split payment won't become the standard operation overnight, but the technical infrastructure is being finalized piece by piece, and the financial market already has the material needed to start building and testing the integrations.

What to do now

• If your company operates its own payment methods, marketplaces with receivables splitting, or financial reconciliation solutions integrated with the ERP, it's worth mapping how the Timing Manual and the Security Manual may impact settlement SLAs and infrastructure requirements.
• IT teams that build or maintain tax integrations should monitor the publication of the manuals on the official portals — the technical documentation is made available on the websites consumo.tributos.gov.br and cgibs.gov.br.
• Tax and accounting teams can use this moment to reinforce, with leadership, that the 2027-2028 timeline is not a single event: it's a sequence of manuals, technical notes, and joint acts that will keep accumulating — and the ERP needs to be prepared to absorb these changes without rework.

This content is for informational purposes only and does not replace guidance from your accounting team, which should assess the specific impact of the tax reform and split payment on your company's operations.

Want to understand how Edoo is tracking the split payment timeline and other IBS/CBS changes within the ERP? Talk to Edoo.