Tighten the siege against the heavy debtor
New legislation of the State of Paraná
starts to differentiate the default bad debt
Decree No. 3.864, published by the Government of Paraná on April 14, starts to differentiate the regular debtor, creating specific rules and sanctions for those who make default a business model that, according to experts, configures unfair competition and damages public accounts . The executive president of ETCO - Sindicom's partner institute on this issue -, Evandro do Carmo Guimarães, estimates that the gap caused by these debtors in the accounts of the Union and the states is at least R $ 3 billion per year.
Luciana Printim, head of the Paraná State Revenue collection sector, says that the impetus for the new legislation came from the conclusion that there were many taxpayers “who make their default not an occasional thing, a time of difficulty, but a repeated thing; persistent practice. We started to realize that this was not being fair competition with the others, who pay their taxes correctly ”, describes Luciana, adding that the tax that is not paid increases the profit margin of those who do not pay.
The state of Rio Grande do Sul was a pioneer in this differentiation and has one of the most important specific laws against the country's persistent debtor. It was created in 2011 and has since managed to recover R $ 17 million owed by these taxpayers and reduce by 26% the number of companies in this situation. Luciana clarifies, however, that the legislation of Rio Grande do Sul was studied and considered valid, but even so, there are differences between the laws of the two states. “The main difference is that they do not allow the customer of a frequent debtor to have ICMS credit. Our intention is to punish the debtor, not the client, ”he says.
Luciana also explains that there are several sanctions that apply when serious debtors are identified. They include the loss of tax benefits, in addition to the obligation to collect the tax per operation (for each sale) and not for calculation (only once a month). “The taxpayer will be notified and will have 30 days to qualify. Our main objective is for him to stop this practice, which is not sectoral ”, he concludes, counting that this month (May) the first batch of notifications will be made to regular debtors.
According to ETCO's executive chairman, long-term debtors are usually wholesale or distributor companies. “It is common for this business to be in the name of oranges, it has no equity. Thus, true partners escape punishment, ”says Evandro. The executive president also indicates that the profit margin can be increased considerably through this practice. “If it is a company that distributes fuels, it can represent up to 30% of the product's price; if it is a cigarette, up to 70% of the product price ”, he points out.
The importance of the actions developed by ETCO, together with Sindicom, to better explain the difference between the persistent debtor and the one who occasionally experiences some financial difficulty promotes the creation of legal tools to combat this practice, also emphasizes Evandro.
“We hope that the Federal and State legislatures also separate these two different types of defaulters. In a country where the active debt of the states and the union is huge, it is very important to separate the types of debtors ”, he concludes.
Source: Sindicom
