Market Livre and Shopee enter government program and purchases will be taxed at up to 92%

After other retail giants, such as AliExpress, Shein and Sinerlog, announced their integrations with “Remessa Compliance”, it was time for Market Livre and Shopee to also receive certification from the government program.

In practice, this means that all purchases over $50 made through these companies’ websites may be taxed at up to 92%.

Purchases of up to 50 dollars – a reason for great concern among Brazilians – will be exempt from federal taxes, at least for now. The budget proposal presented by the Lula government for the year 2024 foresees the end of this exemption.

Currently, in parallel to the Import Tax, which is federal, any and all merchandise received from abroad is subject to the Tax on Circulation of Goods and Services (ICMS), a state tax, the rate of which was set nationally at 17% in June – before In addition, each state could practice its own percentage.

The Conforming Remittance program was the way found by the government to collect tax at source, which causes the seller to pass the charge on to the buyer, who is notified of the tax incidence at the time of acquisition.

According to the Federal Revenue, until last week, companies qualified by the program represented around 67% of the volume of remittances sent to Brazil.

The giant Amazon also requested to join the government program, but is still awaiting formalization.

Before the program, some buyers circumvented the rules by pretending to be individuals to benefit from tax exemptions.

With the new rules, the government expects to raise R$8 billion per year by taxing e-commerce platforms.