Commission maintains exemption for IT

According to the text, contribution may continue based on gross revenue

 

The mixed committee of Congress that analyzes Provisional Measure 774/2017 approved this Wednesday (28) the resumption of the employer's social security contribution of 20% on the payroll for all sectors of the economy, with some exceptions. For this reason, the initiative once again included information technology and the call center in the sectors that will be able to take advantage of payroll exemptions. 

By agreement signed between the leaders, the 15 highlights presented to the text will be analyzed next Tuesday (4).

 

According to the approved text — the conversion bill proposed by the rapporteur for the matter, Senator Airton Sandoval (PMDB-SP) — MP 774 will only come into effect from January 2018.

 

The proposal ends the main tax policy of the government of former President Dilma Rousseff, which replaced the social contribution on the payroll of companies with a contribution based on gross revenue (Law 11,546/2011), reducing the tax.

 

new sectors

 

After listening to representatives of the productive sector, the rapporteur agreed to maintain the exemption policy beyond the sectors originally foreseen in the provisional measure (transport, civil construction and communication).

 

According to the approved project, only companies from the following economic segments may continue to pay the social contribution based on gross revenue:

 

— collective passenger transport (road, metro and rail);

 

— civil construction and infrastructure works;

 

- communication;

 

- information and communication technology;

 

— call centers;

 

— integrated circuit designs;

 

— leather, footwear, confection/clothing; It is

 

— strategic defense companies.

 

According to the rapporteur, the government understands that there is no room to make concessions to other business segments. Even so, Sandoval proposed an agreement to allow the approval of the main text, suggesting that the highlights that intend to benefit other sectors with the exemption of payroll stay for next Tuesday (4).

 

new deadline

 

The rapporteur modified the original text of the MP to establish that companies benefiting from the exemption only lose the incentive in January 2018. The original text determined the end of the exemptions in July of this year.

 

— I know that the financial planning of the companies has already been done, since the fiscal year starts in January and ends in December. This extension to January gives companies time to prepare and for us to help these companies - justified the rapporteur.

 

The MP is part of an effort by the federal government to increase revenues in order to meet the 2017 fiscal target, which is a primary deficit of R$ 139 billion.

 

In addition to changes in the payroll exemption policy, MP 774 revokes the charge of the additional 1% on the Cofins-Importation rate, instituted by Law 10.865/2004. The charge had been questioned in court by several companies, as the amount paid could not be credited by the importer.