Created by the federal government with the edition of the Decree 8,373/14, eSocial is a system for collecting and storing information in a virtual environment. Any person who hires a service provider or individual and has some labor, social security or tax obligation, must send labor, social security and tax information to the federal government, depending on this legal relationship of work.

Approved by the Joint Ordinance SEPRT/RFB 33, of October 6 of this year – published in the Official Gazette of October 7 and rectified on December 2) – the new S-1.1 version of eSocial implemented four new events to be reported:

  • S-2500 - Labor Lawsuits
  • S-2501 - Information on Taxes Arising from Labor Lawsuits
  • S-3500 - Exclusion of Events - Labor Lawsuits
  • S-5501 - Consolidated Information on Taxes Arising from Labor Lawsuits

S-2500 - Labor Lawsuits

The registration and contractual information related to the employment relationship, as well as the calculation bases for the collection of the Service Time Guarantee Fund (FGTS) and the social security contribution of the General Social Security Regime (RGPS), by competence, arising from labor lawsuits, should be declared at the S-2500 event, regardless of the period covered by the decisions/agreements.

The deadline for sending the information shall be until the 15th of the month following the date:

  • the final judgment of the net decision given in the labor lawsuits;
  • ratification of the judicial agreement;
  • the ratified decision of the calculations related to the settlement of the decision; or
  • conclusion of the agreement in the Commission for Prior Conciliation (CCP) or the Interunion Nucleus (Ninter), even if there is no social security contribution, FGTS or Withholding Income Tax (IRRF) to be collected.

As a triggering event for the transmission of information arising from the ratification of an agreement or final transit of the decisions mentioned in items (i) to (iv), the date of January 1, 2023, onwards, should be considered.

The eSocial Guidance Manual provides that the S-2500 event has independent processing of other events, that is, eSocial events do not depend on the completion of the S-2500 event to be transmitted.

Events should not be used for information relating to labor lawsuits of workers linked to the RGPS or RPPS that fall within the jurisdiction of the Common Court or the Federal Court.

The person responsible for sending the information is the one who will pay the judgment against the defendant, whether or not the employer – such as in situations where there is secondary or joint liability.

S-2501 - Information Taxes Arising from Labor Proceedings

In event S-2501, the amounts of the (IRRF) and social security contributions, including those destined to Third Parties, will be declared on the calculation bases contained in the judgment against the defendant and in the ratification decisions of agreements that were informed in  event S-2500.

An S-2501 event should be sent for each labor lawsuit, regardless of the number of workers included as a party to the lawsuit. If the court decision or agreed authorizes the payment of the amounts due in installments, for each installment paid a S-2501 event must be transmitted. This will allow recording the information of the taxes that are being paid up with the payment of eachinstallment..

Unlike event S-2500, event S-2501 should not be sent if there is no social security contribution or IRRF to be collected. In cases where there is a judicial deposit that guarantees the full collection of taxes, it is not necessary to send this event, since the collection will be made by court order. However, if the judicial deposit does not guarantee the full collection of taxes, this event must be sent with the remaining amounts.

The deadline for sending the event will be no later than the 15th of the month following the payment stipulated in the decision/agreement made in the labor proceedings or in the agreement entered into with the CCP or Ninter.

S-3500 - Exclusion of Events - Labor Lawsuits

With respect to the S-3500 event, it should only be sent if there is a need to make an improperly submitted S-2500 or S-2501 event without effect.

S-5501 - Consolidated Information on Taxes Arising from Labor Lawsuits

Event S-5501 deals with a return of eSocial about event  S-2501, whose objective is to show the declarant, based on the information transmitted, the taxes calculated (social security contributions, contributions due to other entities and funds and the IRRF).

How to prepare?

It is essential that companies prepare to launch new information on eSocial from January 2023 (considering the triggering event of January 1, 2023).

For companies that use process management systems, one can evaluate the feasibility of creating specific fields to be filled out that correspond to the same data required by eSocial, which would facilitate the acquisition of the information. You can also create specific alerts for those responsible for the need to include certain legal lawsuit on eSocial.

For companies that do not use a specific process management system, it will be necessary to monitor lawsuits to identify the emergence of the obligation to insert information into the system, in order to meet the deadline stipulated for events S-2500 and S-2501.

For those who use payroll management tools, another option is to check with the tool provider the possibility of new technological solutions that extract information related to labor lawsuits and send them to eSocial.

In any case, it is important to create a flow for sending the information to eSocial in order to avoid missing the deadline for inserting the information.

Penalties

eSocial is not an obligation per se, but a way to send information about compliance with tax and labor obligations. Failure to comply with the sending of information entails the payment of administrative fines provided for in labor and social security legislation. As an example, we mention the following fines:

  • labor legislation, by not sending relevant information about the working relationship, as provided for in Article 41, single paragraph, Labor Code (CLT) - R$ 600 per employee;
  • social security legislation, by not sending information about social security contributions, as provided for in Article 283 of Decree 3,048/99 and MF 15/18 Ordinance – R$ 2,331.32 to R$ 233,130.50;
  • in the FGTS Law, for not sending information about FGTS deposits, as provided for in Article 23, 1, VII, of Law 8,036/90 - R$ 100 to R$ 300 per employee affected; and
  • in tax legislation, as provided for in the 2005 and 2110 Normative Instructions of the Internal Revenue Service (2005/21 IN RFB and 2110/22 IN RFB) – depending on the occurrence of omission of information, inaccuracies in the information submitted, lack of information or delay in the delivery of the information.

We will make new publications on the subject in the coming days.