Dear readers, a year “out of the” curve is ending, for some sectors a year harder than for others.
We started 2024 receiving, for approval, PLP 68/2023, aimed at the implementation of tax reform, more directly from IBS and CBS, which result in VAT (Tax and Value Added), which will affect everyone, industry, commerce, service and consumers; and PLP 108/2023, which will implement the Steering Committee on tax reform, which will take care of how all tax revenue, inspections and other government attributes will be administered and distributed; committee, this, with many controversies to be dealt with.
We will avoid, here, going into details of the tax reform, even because, after PLP 68/2023 was worked on there are “N” in the House, including all the work of lobbyists and interest groups, in which each sought to defend their sector, not always in line with the interests of the country, the report was approved and forwarded to the Senate, with a VAT forecast of 26.5%, the result of all the modifications, reductions and exceptions introduced in the PL. It is worth remembering that when the tax reform began, the estimated VAT would be around 22%.
Now, in the Senate, we already talk about VAT above 28%, logically because of more exceptions and adjustments always justified. We will have the highest VAT in the world, as we know, exceeding Hungary, which is 27%. And more, a careful reading, with more depth of PL68/2023, shows that there is no limit to VAT, and can overcome the 28%, and only after finalizing the implementation of the tax reform, in 2032, it will be verified the VAT practiced and will be created a tax reduction project of tax collection, suggesting that there will be an excess and a tax 1.
Walking through 2024, we find another battle, exhaustive but not finalized, of the return of Import Tax in the sales operations of small values via cross-border. It was an intense struggle, with dozens of associations and retail institutes presenting technical and social arguments of elimination of jobs in the country to the Congress and the Executive, besides initiatives with the Judiciary, in this case, the STF (Superior Federal Court), so that it would return the tax of 60% that was reduced to zero. One of the most consistent studies ordered by the IDTP (Institute for Development of the Federal Court 3), which it is known to supply the same tax (Institute (informity of the tax 1stitution of the tax)
The two topics discussed above, tax reform and cross-border, would already be enough to demonstrate how much energy is required to work and undertake in Brazil, but then another theme, also very relevant to the economy, betas.
The bets have taken billions of reais from retail, services, education and other sectors, generating high expenses for public health in the treatment of gambling addiction and harmed the well-being of thousands of families. The amounts wagered reached about R$ 90 billion in 2023, and the forecast is R$ 200 billion in 2024. Many surveys were done with the population, and none showed benefits by the existence of the bets, only harm, noting that, in them, electronic casinos and games of the tiger were included.
The ordinances of the Ministry of Finance for the regulation of bets, soft, of little impact, led organized civil society to ask for the repeal of the law that establishes electronic games in Brazil. For example, the tax to be paid by bet companies is only 12%, one of the lowest rates already known for any business in the country, and should be much higher, if compared to products that generate addiction, such as smoking and drinking, which go from 60%. It is difficult to understand why such a benefit. There are so many real arguments for the law of bets published or corrects, which is determined by the article that is too extensive, 2 that I have a regulation is not allowed to be, I have an adequate regulation 1.
It is still worth noting that there are two CPIs on bets underway in the National Congress.There is hope that the bet issue will have an appropriate ending to the Brazilian people.
See that only three subjects mentioned above, tax reform, cross-border and bets, shows how challenging 2024 has been for retail, which is our focus here in this article. The retailer is a gladiator, always participating in battles to improve your business, a creative optimist, who faces high interest rates and a profusion of new laws and ordinances that arise at all times and forces you to face increasing expenses. Even so, it does not give up, it has a market and customers to be served and seeks opportunities to create new businesses, improve customer service and productivity gains, certainly, providing progress and well-being to society.
It should be mentioned in this article dozens of legal and operational obligations to which retail and companies in general are submitted, and among many requests that we could make to the leaders of the country, for the new year, I would highlight one in particular: make Brazil a simpler country to undertake.
