Government wants to tax “big techs” in addition to regulating services in Brazil

The government’s desire to regulate the so-called “big techs” in Brazil, especially social media platforms, goes further and intends to tax the services provided in the country, which can generate up to R$82 billion per year to the public coffers (see below for details). estimates).

There are at least four taxation models being studied by an interministerial task force involving the Civil House, the Treasury, Communications, Culture and Secom (Secretariat of Social Communication of the Presidency of the Republic), which should be proposed to Congress later this year. year.

The government’s expectation is to approve it as soon as possible so that it can start taxing technology giants from 2025 onwards. Robinson Barreirinhas, secretary of the Federal Revenue Service, considers the need for collection to be urgent.

“It’s not a discussion of whether we want to do it or not. We have to get into this. If we do not charge the minimum here in relation to their results [big techs]the difference will be charged abroad”, he said in an interview with Newspaper published this Sunday (7) highlighting that many European countries have already started to tax companies.

Among the proposals being studied by the task force are the charge for the use of the country’s telephone network, a contribution for the degradation of the information ecosystem caused by big techs, the taxation of the streaming service and the Income Tax within the scope of the regulation of tax reform.

Although companies do not disclose how much they earn in the country, a study by the Center for Policies, Law, Economics and Technologies at the University of Brasília (UnB) shows that there is a potential for revenue of R$3.3 billion to R$27.6 billions for the services offered by companies – including giants such as Alphabet (owner of Google), Dropbox and Microsoft.

The survey was carried out at the request of the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) and also includes a forecast of revenue from social networks (Meta alone could generate up to R$6.5 billion), online purchases (up to R$18, 9 billion) and streaming services (up to R$29.4 billion).

The Minister of Communications, Juscelino Filho, has already said he is in favor of taxation to “structure digital inclusion projects and ensure that this tax money stays in the sector”. The proposals are expected to be sent to Congress by the end of the semester.