Source: Official Portal of the State of Bahia - 07/08/2009

With the objective of intensifying the fight against tax evasion, the governors of the states of Bahia, Jaques Wagner, and São Paulo, José Serra, will sign, on Monday (10), seven protocols related to the implementation of the ICMS tax substitution. between the two states.

The ceremony will be held at 14 pm, at the Luis Eduardo Magalhães Foundation, at CAB. Also participating in the event are the Secretaries of Finance from Bahia, Carlos Martins, and from São Paulo, Mauro Ricardo Costa.

During the ceremony, protocols on the taxation of toys, bicycles, cleaning supplies, pharmaceuticals, hot drinks, building materials and stationery will be signed.

With the protocols, companies in São Paulo that send goods from these sectors to Bahia, or vice versa, will withhold and collect ICMS for the benefit of the recipient state through the tax substitution regime, through which it is transferred to the state of origin, the payment of the tax that would be paid in all stages of marketing until the sale to the final consumer.

The sale of these goods generates significant amounts for the collection of Bahia and, from January to July this year, these products contributed with the amount of R $ 165,9 million, covering about 20 thousand taxpayers. It is estimated that, with these protocols, there is a gain of R $ 70 million annually in the collection of the State.

In Partnership with

According to Secretary Carlos Martins, this measure is of great importance for the spread of the tax and for the increase of the subjective risk incurred by those who do not fulfill their tax obligation. “And it is of even greater value, with the protagonism manifested by São Paulo and Bahia, in matters of Tax Administration, such as the implementation of the Electronic Invoice, Electronic Transport Knowledge, Sped Fiscal, areas in which the two secretariats they are firm partners, and are at the service not only of their states, but of the whole of Brazil ”.

He also points out that “the signing of protocols together with the state of São Paulo, the largest national producer, shows that the Government of Bahia does not measure efforts to significantly reduce tax evasion, since the goods will already be released with the tax that state ”.

According to the secretary, the implementation of tax substitution is one of the government's great allies in combating tax evasion. And he explains that “tax substitution, by transferring tax collection to the source, facilitates the monitoring of tax collection and ensures tax justice, avoiding unfair competition from companies that do not collect ICMS properly, making the business environment less bureaucratic and expensive ”.

Tax substitution

Thanks to the territorial size of Bahia and its borders with eight units of the Federation, the state of Bahia has adopted interstate agreements with producing and surrounding states for the adhesion or exclusion of certain products in the tax substitution regime.

Today, there are already interstate agreements for medicines and pharmaceutical products with the states of Acre, Alagoas, Espírito Santo, Tocantins, Maranhão, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, among others.

Another example is the hot drinks segment, which is already part of the tax substitution regime for products with vermouth and other fresh grape wines flavored with plants or aromatic substances, as well as other drinks such as whiskeys, vodkas and cognacs.