Author: Mariana Segala

Source: Brasil Econômico - São Paulo / SP - SOCIETY - 28/03/2010

The second generation of the NF-e, which starts on April 1 and is expected to end the year with 1 million registered establishments, will have tools to make counterfeiting more difficult.

A small revolution has been taking place in the field of Brazilian tax management since 2005, when the first steps were taken to create the Electronic Invoice (NF-e).

This year, more precisely the month of April, marks the entry of the project - which aims to replace, with electronic documents, the traditional paper invoices issued by companies in the industrial and wholesale segments - in a new phase, with quantitative and qualitative advances .

On the one hand is the massification of the system. “The entire industry and wholesale trade will be integrated into the program.

The estimate is to reach December with 1 million registered establishments ”, says Vinícius Pimentel de Freitas, assistant technical coordinator of the National Meeting of State Tax Coordinators and Administrators (Encat), which develops the electronic invoice.

On the other is fiscal intelligence. Perfected to raise the quality of the information provided by the taxpaying companies, a version 2.0 of the electronic invoice software will be launched on the 1st and until the second semester what will be called Second Generation Electronic Invoice (NF- and 2G).

The new frontier of the banknote is located in its structure, which allows it to record all events through which the tax document passes until the end of its life cycle - the moment when the merchandise actually sold reaches the buyer.

“A number of things can happen along this path,” explains Freitas. More precisely, Encat mapped about 35 events, ranging from the registration of the passage of the goods through a checkpoint on the border between two states to the theft or return of it.

Everything will be registered in the electronic document and can be verified, on the internet, by whoever has the access key of the note - equivalent to the number.

With this mechanism, the chance of avoiding the most classic fraud is increased. "Imagine the network of a car manufacturer that has representations in different states, with different ICMS (Tax on Circulation of Goods and Services)", suggests the director of the consultancy NF-e do Brasil, Marco Zanini.

A common fraud is that such a company, when selling a car produced in the state with the highest ICMS rate, invoices the goods as if it had been manufactured in the state with the lowest tax.

“With the control of events, if when the buyer informs the NF-e system that the car is received, it does not appear that it passed through state currencies, the note will be canceled”, he explains.

Time to time

The second generation of the electronic invoice is being tested in the states authorizing the document - as is the case in Rio Grande do Sul, whose system also serves 12 other states.

The date of the definitive implementation of the NF-e 2G should be determined by Encat in a meeting scheduled for the next 8th day. “It is when we will make an assessment of the April massification stage”, says Freitas, who is also head of Electronic Interaction of the Secretariat of the gaúcha farm.

The concern of the State Finance Departments is to ensure that the issuers of notes do not have problems when handling the system.

Initially, the events will be registered at the NF-e from the barcode stamped on the Auxiliary Document of the Electronic Invoice (Danfe), which is printed on paper and accompanies the goods in the transport to their destination.

Possibly as of 2011, according to Freitas, the goods will be able to count on tags with RFID technology, radiofrequency identification system. "Then the event control will work 100%", suggests Zanini.