ABES will participate in seminar in Brasília (DF) on software taxation and challenges to innovation

Event will take place on the 17/08th

The taxation of businesses involving the commercialization of software is a topic that has been discussed since the 1990s, with decisions that seek to answer the question: is ICMS or ISS applicable to the supply of software? Over time, different legal understandings have alternated, some of them coming from the Supreme Court of Justice (STJ) or the Federal Supreme Court (STF). At the same time, the business model for marketing and providing services involving computer programs has been changing, with the growth in the use of software via download or in the cloud (cloud), replacing the so-called “off-the-shelf software”.
 
To make the situation more complex, in October 2017, the National Council for Finance Policy (Confaz) published rules that released the collection of ICMS by the States, as of April 1, 2018, for companies that offer software in a download model. and streaming over the internet, intensifying the tax discussion.

Faced with this scenario, ABES participates on August 17, 2018 in the Seminar “THE software taxation: the challenges to innovation”, organized by Ayres Britto Consultoria Jurídica e Advocacia, in Brasília (DF), in which it will be represented by its legal director, Dr. Manuel Antonio dos Santos.
 
The free event will take place at the following address: SHIS, QL. 22, cj. 4, house 17, from 18:45 to 20:00 and registrations can be made by email contato@ayresbritto.com.br.
 
Programming
 
The opening will be held by Prof. Carlos Ayres Britto, former president of the STF, who will speak about “Freedom to innovate and federative competences”. The first panel will deal with the business challenges and will feature Carolina Archanjo (Microsoft) and Paloma Mansano (Bentley Systems). “The perspective of the small: the municipalities” will be the subject of the second panel formed by Maren Taborda, attorney from Porto Alegre (RS) and representative of the Brazilian Association of Finance Departments in Capitals (ABRASF), and Alberto Macedo, tax auditor and representative of São Paulo at ABRASF. “The legal perspective of the sector” will be addressed in the last panel by Dr. Manoel dos Santos (ABES), and by Ricardo Godoi, from the National Confederation of Services (CNS). Prof. Saulo Tourinho Leal will close the seminar and talk about “Digital Economy: for a transformative taxation”.
 
The event will take place at a strategic time for the IT sector, as the assessment of the Direct Action of Unconstitutionality 1945 (ADI), which asks for an injunction to suspend the State Law No. 7,098/1998, which made it possible to charge ICMS in direct electronic commerce by the State of Mato Grosso, as in the traditional market, should be judged in the STF on August 22nd. This decision should have national repercussions, as it offers a more up-to-date understanding of which tax is levied on operations with computer programs – software -, even if carried out by electronic data transfer.