Taxation of profits and dividends impact the medical field

2023-06-07 01:30:05

The tax reform that should be debated and appreciated by the National Congress in the coming months will directly impact the medical field. This is what administrator Júlia Lázaro, founding partner and CEO of Mitfokus envisions. This impact should be translated into an increase in the tax burden.

The weight of this increase will still depend on how the new government and the current legislature will conduct the proposals. Calculations from two years ago projected an increase of 75%. This increase will come mainly from the taxation of profits and dividends, which will hit professionals hired as legal entities (PJ), an increasingly recurrent practice in the sector.

Both the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Budget and the government’s political articulation in Congress have already signaled that the idea is to maintain, as a basis for tax reform, the proposed constitutional amendments 45/2019 and 110/ 2019. Both establish the end of five taxes (ISQN/ISS, municipal; ICMS, state; PIS, Cofins and IPI, federal), being replaced by the Tax on Goods and Services (IBS), federal.

But, for Júlia Lázaro, the taxation of profits and dividends in the Individual Income Tax will inevitably be included. The expected definition is about the conditions – rates, forms of incidence – such taxation will occur. “Since 1995, profits and dividends received by individuals are exempt from Income Tax at source, understanding that taxation already occurs in the Corporate Income Tax”, recalls the specialist.

In the proposal of the economic team of the previous government, sent to Congress in June 2021, the expected rate was 20%. Lawyer Lucas Souza, from the legal department at Mitfokus, notes that the impact will be mainly on doctors who form a legal entity in a group. This is a recurrent practice among professionals who work in hospitals and clinics, especially in specialties and functions that require teams 24 hours a day.

“Groups tend to be large, with up to 30 professionals under a single PJ. So, this group ends up having revenues beyond the framework of Simples Nacional. The taxation of profits and dividends will be for revenues above the Simples Nacional limit, which is R$ 4.8 million per year”, explains the lawyer.

Souza adds that the tax burden, up to this limit of R$ 4.8 million, is, on average, 16%, including Corporate Income Tax, Social Contribution on Net Income and PIS/Cofins, in addition to the municipal ISS (Tax About Services). With the previous proposal, this charge would rise to almost 26%, that is, an increase of ten percentage points, or almost 75%.

According to consultant Lucas Ribeiro, founder and CEO of ROIT, fintech for hyperautomation of accounting, tax and financial management of companies, in fact, activities within the service sector, such as those related to health, must be attentive to the reform process tax. Although the replacement of five taxes by the IBS is beneficial, due to the simplification of the system and the elimination of cascading effects, there are details that need to be well defined in order to avoid increasing the load.

For example, the transition rules and the obtaining of tax credits by companies. “In what was being processed previously, there were at least 20 points to be looked at carefully”, he recalls. In Ribeiro’s evaluation, an important step to mitigate the effects is to guarantee a broad, consistent tax reform, and not in a “sliced” way.

Judging by public demonstrations by both government representatives and the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), and of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), tax reform will be a priority in Congress. The theme’s rapporteur, Aguinaldo Ribeiro (PP-PB), has stated that the vote will take place this year.

More information

• About the tax reform proposals

• About Mitfokus

Source: communication engineering