The Senate Plenary approved on Tuesday (24) a project that benefits small companies in the payment of tax substitution. According to PLS 201/2013, by Senator Roberto Requião (PMDB-PR), the payment of ICMS on products or goods subject to tax substitution will now be in a single rate of 3,95%. The measure is only valid for micro and small businesses that are part of Simples Nacional.

The basic text of the project was approved by 57 votes to 1. During the vote, several leaders and senators expressed support for the initiative. Four editorial amendments, which do not alter the content of the article, were also approved. The project goes to the Chamber of Deputies.

Tax substitution

Tax substitution is a collection regime that obliges the taxpayer to pay the tax due by its customers along the marketing chain - that is, to pay ICMS on the sale of the product before it happens and even if it does not happen. Currently, small companies must pay, when purchasing products from their suppliers, the full ICMS tax rate of the purchase plus the reduced rate of the presumed sale, which is set at a maximum of 3,9%.

With the project, the full rate ceases to be part of the equation, and the ICMS due becomes only that of the presumed sale, which is the reduced rate. The maximum limit of this value goes from 3,9% to 3,95%.

Requião believes that the exemption will not harm the collection, on the contrary. He argues that granting tax benefits to small businesses is a way of heating the economy.

- The small capitalized entrepreneur spends on the formal market. He buys a refrigerator, a car, repairs his house, goes to a building materials store and all this is taxed - he observed.

The author of the proposal also understands that the tax substitution expedition is harmful to small companies, and the new measure is a way to alleviate it.

- As the small business owner cannot compensate, he has a much higher cost than large companies. Small businesses are breaking down and unemployed at the moment when this is crucial for the population - criticized Requião.

Senator Romero Jucá (PMDB-RR) expressed support for the project and said he believes it is an important step towards simplifying the national tax system.

- This measure does justice to micro and small companies. With the tax substitution, it ends up being a burden on those who later cannot compensate. It is necessary to create a neutral chain that does not burden or detract from competitiveness. We want to exempt the country from taxes and this project has this power - he celebrated.

Refund

The proposal also establishes a new hypothesis for the refund of ICMS. Today, the Kandir Law already assures these taxpayers the right to a refund of value when the presumed chargeable event (the sale) does not take place. The project also provides for compensation when the sale is made on a calculation basis lower than that estimated by the Department of Finance.

According to the rapporteur, Senator Gleisi Hoffmann (PT-PR), Complementary Law 147/2014 met several demands of this business segment regarding tax substitution, but “did not set limits on the severe imposition of taxes on micro and small businessmen”. The gap is now filled by the approval of Senator Roberto Requião's project.

Source: Agência Senado (24/03)