The ICMS nonsense about software – Digital Convergence

By Benito Paret *

01/06/2016 … Digital Convergence

It has been in place in some States the collection almost symbolic of the media that supports the contracted software. Last October the State of São Paulo, by decree, also started to charge ICMS on content and other amounts included in the purchase.

In erase from 2015 lights, CONFAZ (National Council of Financial Policy) published the ICMS 181 authorizing tax burden of ICMS for the software industry of at least 5%, endorsed by the main producing states / consumers. Provides must even those hired by downloading also be taxed, unwieldy alias in the web world we live in.

Many lawyers consider illegal far as the Convenio of CONFAZ can not institute new taxable event. Regardless of these legal doubts there is consensus that States in order to force this new collection would have to modify its legislation tributarias.Temos still remember that Complementary Law 116 establishes the collection of ISS for the software and that a double taxation with VAT would be a total nonsense.

There is an old debate about whether the software should be considered a product of simple product or a service provided to the user. We have defended the thesis that the software should be characterized by its nature, independently, without traditional connotations. A matter of extreme gravity is that the tax avoidance of the contracted software with multinational and billed companies abroad, very common practice today, exerts unfair competition with domestic products because it does not pay any tribute and usually the parents issuer charging exempts them, further aggravating the precarious situation of our companies.

We call upon States, in seeking to increase their revenues, do not incur a practice that had predator and for our industry, already affected the national crisis. Preventively are studying the appropriate legal measures and suggest that companies organize themselves to take preventive providences they deem appropriate

* Benito Paret is President of IT RIVER -. Union of River Information Technology Companies January