Rio Grande do Sul entities are running a campaign in the country to pressure the National Congress to change the revenue range for micro and small companies (MSEs) to appear in Simples Nacional. A study commissioned by the Business School of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (Pucrs) calculates a lag of 75.81% in the table that has not changed since 2018. The lag follows correction by the IGP-DI.
The ceiling today is R$ 4.8 million. The sectors want to p the value to R$ 8.4 million. The campaign “Update Simples Nacional” focuses on the parliamentary benches, such as Rio Grande do Sul, says Sandro Zanette, vice-president of the Food and Accommodation Union of Porto Alegre and Region (Sindha), the entity that contracted the study from Pucrs.
“More than 80% of the bars and restaurants are in Simples”, says Zanette. The document released by the movement has been gaining adherence day by day. Almost 30 organizations, linked to services, from bars to hotels, and commerce joined the election. Sindha’s diigente mentions that the change is also essential to change the range of Simples Gaúcho, currently at R$ 3.6 million.
With inflation rising and accelerating in the post-pandemic period, the correction of prices and other costs made the operation of small companies increasingly come close to or burst the ceiling. In addition, many brands maintain their size, avoiding opening more units, as they would lose their tax status.
“Inflation was such that, even without opening a store, companies are having to leave Simples”, observes Sérgio Galbinski, president of the ociação Gaúcha do Varejo (AGV), which joined the mobilization. “On average, companies that leave Simples close in 2.1 years”, laments Galbinski.
Regarding the gap in values, the AGV director uses a metaphor: “If Simples is an airport runway for us to accelerate and take off, without updating it is as if the government were shortening the runway. There is no way to take off!”, reinforces Galbinski.
The entities mention that Simples ended up being left out of the tax reform, but that without the update, the policy for MSEs would lose importance. The amendment would have been included in the bill that changes the billing for Individual Microentrepreneurs (MEI), also under analysis in Congress.
The Pucrs study indicates impacts of changing the ceiling. One of them is that R$ 77 billion will be injected into the economy, an amount that today ends up being collected in the range between R$ 4.8 million and R$ 8.4 million. “With the study, we want to demonstrate the positive impacts for socioeconomic development, promotion of sectors and job creation”, reinforces Zanette. The projection is for the opening of 650,000 jobs.
“With the update alone, the government will raise R$ 17 billion more, making up in 4.5 years what it fails to collect with the update”, argues the leader. The campaign has already reached the Ministry of Tourism, due to its relationship with one of the segments that would be most affected, and now the entities want an agenda with the Ministry of Finance, says Zanette.