Source: DCI – Economic Policy

it seemed impossible
until recently that, in Brazil, it was possible to take documentation to open a company
at the competent body and leave, hours later, with your registration completed. Due to the implementation of the
Synchronized registration of companies, this situation is already feasible in the States of São Paulo and Bahia.

What appears to be a revolution in terms of eliminating bureaucracy comes with a simple measure,
taken in mid-2005: synchronizing the registration of companies around the National Cadastro de Pessoa
Legal (CNPJ), and with all documentation being delivered in just one place. In this case, the Board of Trade
of the state in question.

In São Paulo, where synchronized registration was put into practice a year ago,
there are already companies that manage to have their opening authorized in one day. "For simple cases and the partners do not
have pending issues with the Internal Revenue Service and any restrictions at the Finance Department in ME-type companies (microenterprise),
the system can automatically process and complete the process on the same day",
informs the São Paulo Finance Department.

In Bahia, the registration of new companies
in the Board of Trade of Bahia (Juceb) it is even more agile. "The response time for the opening of
company is already automatic for 99% of the orders", emphasizes the Director of Collection and Control of the Secretariat
of the Bahia Farm, Reginato Pereira. In that state, an average of 6 companies are opened a year.

For him, the acceleration of this process - historically considered slow in the country - is of great
useful not only for the entrepreneur, but also for the inspection bodies of the three spheres of government.
“In the view of the state, there was a great gain with the synchronization of records. It was common the data delivered
by entrepreneurs in the Revenue were different from those delivered to the Commercial Registry, and so it went.
After the open company, it was also common to only take some documentation requested in one of the instances,
instead of going all the way. With the standardization coming with the synchronization of records, these inconsistencies
were solved”, explained Pereira.

However, it is still not so simple to start a company
quickly. In addition to the taxpayer needing to be up to date with the tax authorities, it is still necessary, in some cases,
the granting of prior site verification, which also takes at least a week.

To the government,
the synchronized registration means eliminating conflicting data from the same company - which makes the crossing of
data for inspection purposes much more efficiently.

"We had an important advance regarding
to the electronic control of taxpayers, since when they enter the synchronized register they can send
data over the Internet. It is much more practical and agile for both the company and the tax authorities”, says Pereira.

The synchronization of the register has the intrinsic possibility of gathering information from Organs participating bodies.
That is, federal, state and municipal tax authorities automatically exchanging data.

"Its about
a great instrument to combat tax evasion, which in the end is the function of these bodies", said the
president of the Brazilian Institute of Tax Planning (IBPT), Gilberto Luiz do Amaral. For him,
when the synchronized register is in full use, it will even be possible to obtain a reduction in the tax burden.
“Today, the Revenue does not reduce because informality is high. But streamline the opening and the
closing companies will attract more companies to the formality, bringing with it a larger base
of taxpayers that will make it possible to cut taxes”, he explained.
Advance

Beyond São Paulo
and Bahia, two more cities – São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro – have also signed an agreement with the Revenue
to participate in the synchronized registration. The federal tax authorities' perspective is that 20 states already
have entered the system by the end of the year.

A new phase, with the entry of a few more
states, should take place in May. Candidates are those with a little more infrastructure.
or who have already expressed interest, such as Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais,
Sergipe and Maranhão. However, one problem still stands in the way: the lack of funds for the modernization of
Departments of Finance - already thinking about the proximity of the implantation of the Invoice
Electronics and the Public Digital Bookkeeping System (SPED). Three weeks ago, the Federal Government – ​​through
of the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) – released R$ 300 million for
the states to modernize their tax administrations to the point of being able to embrace the three novelties,
with the sharing of the resource being directly related to the collection of the Tax on Circulation
of Goods (ICMS).

But what would be a solution is actually a problem: most of the
states cannot take the BNDES' recourse because it is already within the indebtedness limit allowed by law
of Fiscal Responsibility (LRF).

The position of the states is to convince the Federal Government of it
even take the loan and transfer, via agreement, the resource. This expedient has already been used in other
opportunities, they argue. Representatives of the state finance secretariats and the Ministry of Finance
should meet in Brasilia later this week to discuss how to resolve this impasse.

“This way, it is very difficult for any company to invest”, he says. He says the money
used to settle tax obligations could be used in business expansion and generation of
more jobs. For Pires, the labor legislation is “outdated and absurd”.

"The legislation
was created nearly 70 years ago. The law has to adapt to its time”, he says.

Companies find “the way
Brazilian" ANA PAULA PETROSA

A change in labor legislation could take the
informality thousands of Brazilians. According to tax experts, the labor reform does not
it would mean removing workers' rights and, yes, adapting the law – created in the 40s of the
last century by Getúlio Vargas – to the present day.

"Today, employing is not the best deal",
says lawyer Maria Inês Murgel, partner at Junqueira de Carvalho, Murgel e Brito Advogados and
Consultants. "The burdens weigh a lot for companies and are throwing many workers to
informality”, he adds.

According to her, reducing taxation is an “urgent and necessary” measure and not
it would only have economic effects. "It would be a gigantic social action, which would include a large contingent
of people on the payroll”, he says. The tax expert at CLR Advogados e Consultores, Aci Hely Coutinho,
agree.

According to him, the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT) had an important historical role,
but it doesn't fit today. Less paternalism "(The CLT) was conducive to regulating the relationships between
employers and employees and brought benefits to society. But today, relationships no longer need to be so paternalistic,"
he affirms

For Coutinho, the ideal would be a lighter legislation, which would guarantee the basic rights,
but open space for negotiation between the two parties.

The professor of labor law and
pension fund at the Fumec University Mércia Scarpelli de Souza says job creation in Brazil
it depends on several factors, such as improving the infrastructure for production flow, adopting a
economic policy that encourages the productive sector with measures to expand credit and quality education.

"The adequacy of tax and labor legislation to the interests of the entities involved in the contract
of work, workers and employers, would also be important”, he says.

For experts, the
The burden of burdens leads entrepreneurs to seek alternative, not always legal, solutions to reduce
costs.

Employees, especially those with higher salaries, agree to work under the
legal entity (PJ), for example, also to suffer lower taxation on their salaries.

in the other
tip, the less qualified workers are submitted to informal work regime because they have no other
alternative to enter the market. This is the case of butler Márcio Vagner da Silva, who has worked for three
years without a formal contract.

During this period, he never took a vacation or received a 13th salary. in the attempt
to avoid high labor costs, many companies end up resorting to irregular practices.

In Minas, the Public Ministry of Labor has 661 procedures in progress, including investigations,
lawsuits and settlement attempts for various types of fraud.

Front Cooperatives - Serving
to cover up employment relationships - and irregular outsourcing are the most common offenses,
with 197 and 190 cases, respectively.

Also appearing on the list are stage fraud and hiring
of one-person companies as a way to mask the employment relationship and avoid the charges, procedure
which the agency called “pejotização”, a reference to false legal entities (PJs).

The frame, which already
is serious, it could get even worse if devices like the 3rd Amendment come into effect. Head of the Coordination of
Defense of the Diffuse and Collective Interests of the Attorney of the Public Ministry of Labor in Minas, Sônia
Toledo Gonçalves says that the volume of shares could triple.

“It will be chaos in labor relations,” he says.
Amendment 3 was approved by Congress in the context of the legislation that created the Super-Revenue and transferred it to the
Justice the attribution of identifying and punishing practices such as "pejotization" - currently, labor inspectors
have that power.

The article was vetoed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but is still the subject of discussion
because the veto can be overturned in the Legislative.

Protests Last week, the main centrals
unions promoted protests across the country to maintain the veto.

"There are many complaints in
regarding fraud involving false self-employed. If entrepreneurs feel that they will not have sanctions, they will
continuity of these practices”, said the president of Força Sindical in Minas, Rogério Fernandes.

The vice president of the Association of Tax Auditors for Labor in Mines (AAFIT), Maria do Socorro Brandão,
choruses. She says that if the 3rd Amendment goes into effect, labor relations will be precarious.

"The inspection will no longer have effective action", he says. The Attorney of the Public Ministry
Sônia Gonçalves explains that the inspection aims to correct the irregularity as quickly as possible,
while the judicial process is slower and has a restorative nature.

According to her, during a
inspection it is possible to identify the fraud and make an agreement between the parties. In this case, there is no application.
of fines.

If there is no agreement, the inspector can forward the complaint to the Public Ministry, which tries to sign
a term of adjustment of conduct (TAC) before the case reaches the court. With TAC,
the company undertakes to resolve the situation and not repeat the irregularity.

If there is a process
in court, in addition to regularizing the situation of employees, the company is subject to fines and payment
of indemnity for collective pain and suffering. Sônia Gonçalves says that the damage to the worker who is hired
fraudulently goes beyond the financial.

"If he is not recognized as an employee, he will not
none of the health and safety standards apply,” he says. Among the rights suppressed by the absence of
work permits are the working day and the obligation to receive safety equipment.