Change in taxation on international purchases will impact consumers, experts say

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The federal government’s announcement to end the rule that exempts taxes on international shipments worth up to US$ 50 (R$ 250) should directly impact consumers of Asian giants such as Shein, Shopee and other marketplaces.

The forecast is that the siege of companies in this segment will generate R$ 8 billion per year to the public coffers and, in the evaluation of experts, the tendency is for Brazilians to pay more to buy the products.

After the negative repercussion of the announcement, the Ministry of Finance released a note claiming that consumers would not be affected by the measure, since, according to the government, the benefit of the exemption applies only to shipments from individuals to individuals.

Also read: “No fee will be created for online purchases”, says Fazenda about Shopee, Shein and other sites

This means that, in theory, purchases made over the internet on large websites would already have to pay import tax, whose rate is 60% on the value of the goods. However, there is a number of companies that act illegally by splitting purchases, pretending to be natural persons, to escape taxation.

According to the Ministry of Finance, a provisional measure will be drawn up — which has the force of law and takes effect immediately after publication — determining that stores provide an advance declaration with the data of the exporter and who buys it, in addition to the product. The government’s objective is to prevent foreign companies from continuing to evade taxes.

Despite the Executive saying the opposite, specialists guarantee that, in practice, purchases by Brazilian consumers on websites abroad will become more expensive.

“Certainly the effects will have a direct impact on consumers’ pockets and, consequently, negative effects will be especially felt on the Asian giants in the sector, which, due to the decrease in their sales, will suffer marketing adjustments that tend to make their products more expensive”, says Marcelo Censoni Filho, specialist in tax law and CEO of Censoni Tecnologia Fiscal.

This is also what Guilherme Di Ferreira, specialist in tax law and deputy director of the Tax Law Commission of the OAB-GO, says.

For the National Union of Tax Auditors of the Federal Revenue Service (Sindifisco), the government’s measure only closes a loophole for fraud, but does not tackle the problem of underinvoicing at the time of declaration. “This requires much more customs control structure for inspection”, says the entity.

Kleber Cabral, vice-president of the National Association of Tax Auditors of the Federal Revenue Service (Unafisco), says that the government has good intentions to prevent foreign virtual stores from circumventing Brazilian taxation. However, he assesses that issuing the provisional measure would not be the best option to solve the problem.

For the vice-president of Unafisco, the new norm should also have an impact on the government’s estimated revenue, which believes it is possible to collect R$ 8 billion in taxes, even with the upward growth of the e-commerce giants.

According to a report released by the BTG Pactual group, in January, Shein alone earned BRL 8 billion in Brazil in 2022, a growth of 300% compared to 2021.

Read also: Government creates and resumes taxes in order to raise R$ 150 billion to make new fiscal rules feasible

Control by CPF

The best model to resolve the issue, according to the vice president at Unafisco, would be the creation of a purchase limit on foreign websites, which could be monthly or annual.

“This limit could be controlled by the consumer’s CPF or by the delivery address. Which is also not an easy solution, because Chinese websites really underinvoice goods. However, this is the work that the public administration has to do. Separate the chaff of the wheat, and not treat everyone like chaff.”

As an example, he cites the treatment given to Brazilians traveling abroad, who can bring goods up to a limit of US$1,000 to Brazil, exempt from customs duties.

When the limit is exceeded, the traveler declares the items and pays import tax of 50% on the excess value. “In other words, is it reasonable that there is a high exemption for air travelers who manage to go abroad and, for Brazilians who buy on the internet, such a high rate is applied?”, asks Kleber Cabral.

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