The event Correio Debate: Tax burden in Brazil it will bring together experts and authorities in a dialogue on possible obstacles that hinder the country's development and the paths for the resumption of economic growth. One of the points of the discussion is the so-called “Custo Brasil”, the Brazilian tax system. How much do legally established companies in the country spend (in time and money) to satisfactorily fulfill the obligations imposed by current laws? The structure of the tax system, taxes and their readjustments and the advancement of the illegal market will also be discussed in this round table, among other topics. The event is a realization of Correio Braziliense together with the Brazilian Institute of Competition Ethics (ETCO) and the National Forum against Piracy and Illegality (FNCP). Join this debate by signing up for free here. Vacancies are limited.
When: 20/09/2016
Time: 8h30
Location: Auditorium of the headquarters of BRAZILIAN MAIL in DF
From 2013 to 2015, the government of Rio de Janeiro recorded R $ 7 billion related to the default of companies with taxes. Of this total, 30% were related to 2013, 30% to 2014 and 40% to this year. In 2015 alone, there are R $ 2,8 billion, equivalent to 8% of the R $ 35 billion of the state tax collection. Júlio Bueno, state finance secretary, notes that tax evasion is a crime, but default is not, and often the debtor deliberately protects himself from default.
However, the committee chairman did not say how much the tax rate will be.
The chairman of the Special Tax Reform Commission, deputy Hildo Rocha (PMDB-MA), anticipated that the final report by deputy André Moura (PSC-SE) will provide for the creation of a fund to compensate states for eventual losses in tax collection resulting from the unification the legislation on the Tax on Circulation of Goods and Services (ICMS).
Photo by: Agência Câmara Notícias - Gustavo Lima
“There is a forecast, within our global agglutinative PEC, to compensate for the state that may lose. Of course, in a change like this, someone will lose, but we are creating a Revenue Equalization Fund for no state to lose. This will come from the resources of the IPI (Tax on Industrialized Products), the Income Tax ”, he said.
Unification of rates
The unification of the rates is one of the main points of the report that, according to Rocha, will be voted on in November by the Special Committee and until the end of the year in the plenary of the Chamber. However, the committee chairman did not say how much the tax will be.
Today there are 27 different state legislations on ICMS and many states, mainly in the Midwest and Northeast, charge lower rates to attract companies to their territories, the so-called “fiscal war”.
In 2008, a substitute presented by former deputy Sandro Mabel already predicted the end of the fiscal war and the unification of the rates, bringing together several proposals on tax reform (PECs 233/08 and 31/07, among others).
The substitute proposed by Mabel was approved by the special commission but was not analyzed at the Plenary of the Chamber, mainly because it faced opposition from states that considered themselves harmed.
According to the committee chairman, there is still opposition. He guarantees, however, that most states support the measure. "Some states in the Midwest region stand against the end of the fiscal war, against the single legislation for this tax, which is one of the most complex we have," he said.
Finance Offices
The proposal for a fund to compensate states that lose revenue was presented in August, in the Chamber, by representatives of state finance departments. They defended the inclusion of the fund in the Constitution - and not through a Provisional Measure, as the government intended.
To try to reach consensus, the commission held public hearings in several states to hear the opinion of businessmen and representatives of governors. Last Monday (26), the deputies were at the headquarters of the Federation of Industries of Maranhão (Fiema), in São Luiz (MA), where they heard suggestions from businessmen.
The vice-president of Fiema, Cláudio Azevedo, said that, in general, the entity's proposals are the same as those formulated by the National Confederation of Industry: harmonization of the ICMS, IPI, PIS and Cofins calculation base, unification of the ICMS legislation and reduction of the tax burden.
IVA
In addition to the unification of the 27 state ICMS laws, the proposal that will be presented by deputy André Moura also foresees the replacement of taxes such as Cofins, PIS, Cide-Combustível and the education salary with the Value Added Tax (VAT) provided in PEC 233/08, presented by the Federal Executive.
“With VAT, what is intended is to end the cumulative nature of taxes throughout the production chain, since products are taxed even when one is used in the manufacture of another. In addition, VAT will also be shared with states and municipalities, ”said André Moura, on his personal website.
In August, at a public hearing of the commission, economist André Alencar, of the National Confederation of Municipalities (CNM), said that the unification of the Service Tax (ISS) with the Tax on the Circulation of Goods and Services (ICMS) to create a State Value Added Tax (VAT) would only be possible if there was no decrease in resources for the municipalities.
ICMS, which was charged only on programs sold on CD or DVD, will be charged on download sales starting in January
The government of the State of São Paulo will soon change the rules for taxing software, whether in the sale of products recorded on physical media (CD or DVD), or when the license is delivered to the consumer through download. According to decree nº 61.522, published on September 29 by Governor Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB), the rate of 18% of the Tax on Circulation of Goods and Services (ICMS) will be levied on the sale of software, whatever the means of delivery, from January 2016.
Currently, in the case of programs sold on physical media, the government already collects ICMS, but the 18% rate is calculated at double the value of the physical support (CD or DVD), as decree nº 51.619, of February 27, 2007. “Taxation is calculated based on support, which ends up generating negligible value”, says Ivan Ozawa Ozai, deputy director of the tax consultancy at the São Paulo Finance Department. According to him, the government's objective is to align the ICMS taxation to that adopted in other states.
By Thiago Sawada
Source: Estadão (08/10)
Click here to read material straight from the source.
In an article published by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, on September 02, the president of the Brazilian Electronic Industry Association (Abinee), Humberto Barbato, criticized the return of charging PIS / Cofins on technology products. According to him, the country's economic crisis has already caused a drop of 17% in the sale of cell phones and 28% in the sale of computer products, and it tends to worsen with the return of the collection of these taxes. Barbato also guaranteed that such a charge will cause informality in the electronics sector to increase, making this action “a shot in the foot, as the significant drop in sales will prevent the government from meeting its collection goal” .
Almost 45% of Brazilians aware that they pay some type of tax in Brazil are unaware, however, that the taxes are embedded in the price of products and services they consume, revealed a survey by Fecomercio-RJ / Ipsos, released exclusively to iG.
The survey also pointed out that Brazilians perceive the incidence of municipal taxes (69%), such as IPTU and taxes on garbage and lighting, much more than indirect taxes, diluted on goods.
“Most of the population is aware of the incidence of taxes paid directly, while most of them forget about taxes diluted in everyday consumption, such as the bus fare, shopping at the supermarket or having dinner at the restaurant,” says Christian Travassos, economist at Fecomércio-RJ.
Among those who know about the incidence, the vast majority think that they pay more taxes for the consumption of items that, in fact, are not the most taxed. Food, electricity bills and clothing were cited by 9 out of 10 people when asked which taxes weigh the most in their pockets.
The percentage embedded in processed foods, for example, varies from 16% to 40%, according to data from the Brazilian Institute of Tax Planning (IBPT). The amount of taxes on the electricity bill reaches 48%, and clothing items have an incidence between 31% and 58%.
Foods that are more essential for consumption, for example, tend to be less taxed. A bag of rice priced at R $ 5 will have R $ 0,85 destined for public coffers (17%). A bottle of mustard, more expendable in the Brazilian dish, has an incidence of 40% on the price paid by the consumer.
Editorial of the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, dated 04/07, discusses a complementary bill that validates tax benefits granted by states that adhere to the fiscal war. According to the vehicle, the project may feed the dispute between the units of the federation. Click here And check it out.
The high cost of the medicine prescribed by the physician remains the greatest obstacle to the population's access to the basic right to health, provided for in the Constitution. The weight of taxes on prescription drugs sold in Brazil exceeds that of 37 other countries that are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the BRIC group.
According to studies compiled by the Association of the Pharmaceutical Research Industry (Interfarma), more than 71% of medicines are purchased directly by the population, a percentage much higher than the government's participation in the supply of medicines. In addition, when paying for the medicine at the pharmacy, 34% of the price of the medicine refers to 86 taxes on the product. For the executive president of Interfarma, Antonio Britto, "there is a direct relationship between the difficulty of access to the medicine and the weight of the taxes".
These and other data are contained in the publication “Tributos e Medicamentos”, which analyzes the tax structure of the pharmaceutical sector in Brazil and other countries. The work was launched on August 20 by Interfarma, during the Seminar “Medicamentos & Tributos”, held by the Association in partnership with the newspaper Valor Econômico. Organized by professors Eduardo Perillo and Maria Cristina Sanches Amorim, researchers in economics at PUC / SP, the book brings contributions from several researchers from Brazilian and foreign universities.
In his lecture at the event, Professor of Health Policies at Imperial College London, Nick Bosanquet, presented a survey on the weight of taxes in several countries, which clearly shows that the incidence of taxes on prescription drugs in Brazil is greater than 37 OECD countries and also other BRICS members. There are 86 taxes, fees and levies on products, whose rate reaches 28%.
"We are far from offering the social well-being provided by nations that, despite having higher tax burdens than Brazil, have high levels of return to the population from the taxes paid," said ETCO's chief executive, Roberto Abdenur, referring to to countries like Australia, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland and Finland.
During the event, Interfarma declared its support for initiatives that seek to reduce or eliminate taxes on the medicine in Brazil, such as the Parliamentary Front for the Reduction of Taxes on Medicines, a joint initiative of the Brazilian Association of Drug Distributors National Laboratories (Abradilan), the Brazilian Association of Wholesale Pharmaceuticals (Abafarma), the Brazilian Association of Pharmacy and Drugstore Networks (Abrafarma) and the Brazilian Association of Pharmaceutical Trade (ABCFarma).
In addition, Interfarma supports the Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC) authored by Senator Paulo Bauer, which exempts medicines for human use from taxes, and also the Bill of Congressman José Antônio Machado Regufe, which proposes the exemption of taxes on essential medicines.
Among all the taxes levied on medicines today, one of them is PIS / Cofins, a federal tax that is exempt for 65% of products with a medical prescription for chronic diseases. Interfarma claims that the government extends this exemption to all drugs. The entity also supports the reduction of State ICMS and interstate ICMS to a rate of 7%.
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The event Correio Debate: Tax burden in Brazil it will bring together experts and authorities in a dialogue on possible obstacles that hinder the country's development and the paths for the resumption of economic growth. One of the points of the discussion is the so-called “Custo Brasil”, the Brazilian tax system. How much do legally established companies in the country spend (in time and money) to satisfactorily fulfill the obligations imposed by current laws? The structure of the tax system, taxes and their readjustments and the advancement of the illegal market will also be discussed in this round table, among other topics. The event is a realization of Correio Braziliense together with the Brazilian Institute of Competition Ethics (ETCO) and the National Forum against Piracy and Illegality (FNCP). Join this debate by signing up for free here. Vacancies are limited.
