Source: O Estado de S. Paulo, 20/03/2008

All manufacturers and distributors in the cigarette and fuel sectors will be required, as of April 1, to register their sales on an electronic invoice. The requirement applies to transactions in all states, including interstate sales operations. The change will affect about 5 companies.

This group, according to a decision by the National Council for Farm Policy (Confaz) - a collegiate that brings together representatives of the State Finance Departments and the Ministry of Finance - will no longer be able to issue paper notes. It is the first major movement for the implementation of electronic invoices in all commercial transactions in Brazil, up to sales to the final consumer. Initially, it will be mandatory only for transactions between companies.

The electronic invoice is a computer record in the system maintained by the Finance and Federal Revenue Departments. The expectation is that, with the requirement for the cigarette and fuel sectors, 3,5 million electronic invoices are issued per month to 200 thousand establishments.

In September, other sectors will have to join the system: manufacturers of cars, cement, medicines, refrigerators, manufacturers of pig iron, laminates, beverages and steel. In this second phase, 10 million electronic notes will be issued per month.

According to the Federal Revenue Inspection coordinator, Marcelo Fisch, these sectors have a large participation in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). He stated that the system will be an important weapon to combat tax evasion, with the identification of cold notes (issued by companies that do not exist), traveled notes (the same note is used for various sales operations) and sidewalk notes (when the company issues two copies, one available to the tax authorities and under-invoiced and the other with the real value of the transaction).

According to the supervisor of the Public Digital Bookkeeping System (Sped), Carlos Sussumu Oda, the invoice reduces the costs of issuing and storing documents for companies.

The implementation of Sped, which includes electronic invoices, was accelerated to make the tax reform proposal feasible. It will be easier and safer for States to implement the change in the collection of ICMS from source (production) to destination (consumption). The notes will allow the calculation of the losses that the States will have with the alteration and the reimbursement that will be made by a compensation fund.