Source: Jornal Vale Paraibano Online - SP - 19/07/2009

Project that obliges merchants and service providers to discriminate in the invoice all federal, state and municipal taxes.

In the name of transparency, they are trying to create yet another absurd monstrosity by demanding the discrimination in the sales invoice, the values ​​of the IPI, ICMS and the contributions to the PIS to affect the production of the good and, also, the values ​​of the ICMS, contribution to the PIS and Cofins that apply to the sale made. In a complex tax system, the proposal, if turned into law, will have everything to be part of the immense group of laws that do not stick.

If this project is really approved, a fantastic tax bureaucracy will be created, with immense cost increases and, consequently, higher prices for the final consumer. In order to adapt, the trader would have to purchase an elaborate and very expensive computer program, such the number of variables for the calculation, due to the immense range of products sold and also due to the difficulty in estimating the proportion related to IR and CSLL that falls on each product. The Bill also ignores advances resulting from the evolution of information technology, such as the Tax Coupon Issuer, which already replaces the traditional invoice and the electronic invoice. With this absurdly bureaucratic project, already approved by the Senate and pending approval by the Chamber, our legislators pretend to seek transparency, perhaps to cover up other aspects that really should be transparent.