Representatives of the health and supplementary pension sector point out that private and non-profit initiatives relieve public spending on health to justify increasing or maintaining favored treatment.
The requests were made at a public hearing at the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ), held this Tuesday (12).
The meeting, chaired by senator Augusta Brito (PT-CE), regulates the transformation of five taxes (ICMS, ISS, IPI, PIS and Cofins) into two: a value added tax (VAT) on consumption, divided between the federal and state/municipal levels; and the Selective Tax. The text is reported by senator Eduardo Braga (MDB-AM).
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According to the senator Efraim Filho (União Brasil-PB)public authorities need to reflect the will of citizens and provide favorable treatment in the area of health, in contrast to the need for governments to raise resources.
“There are themes that need to be looked at differently, and health has been one of them. The governments [federais, estaduais e municipais] they have to adapt to the tax rate that Brazilian citizens can afford. I am convinced that the Senate does not want and will not deliver the highest VAT in the world as has been said”, stated the senator.
Surgical services, medical consultations, vaccinations and 24 other health services will have a 60% reduction in the standard rate of the new VAT, estimated at around 28%, to be applied as a general rule to all goods and services consumed in the country. Currently, consumption is taxed using sparse rules drawn up by each of the 27 states and 5,570 municipalities.
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Medicines
All medicines should be free from Tax on Goods and Services (IBS) and Social Contribution on Goods and Services (CBS) – which represent the state/municipal and federal part of the new VAT –, in the opinion of the executive president of the Union of Pharmaceutical Products Industry (Sindusfarma), Nelson Mussolini. According to him, increasing the benefits could relieve SUS in relation to the supply of medicines.
“When the doctor prescribes a product, if the person cannot buy it at the pharmacy, they go to the health center to get the medicine. In this way, it puts pressure on the Unified Health System,” said Nelson.
The executive president of the Brazilian Association of Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Industries (Pró-Generics), Tiago de Moraes Vicente, defended the maintenance of the current version of PLP 68/2024, approved in the Chamber of Deputies. The text gives 383 medicines a zero rate of IBS and CBS; other medicines will have a 60% tax reduction.
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Health plan
The text also provides that health plans will also have a 60% reduction in the rate, according to the representative of the confederation of supplementary health companies (CNSeg), Bruno Toledo Checchia. He praised the reduced tax, but criticized what he considers an inequality in the negotiations made by workers’ unions, regarding the possibility of recovering, in the form of credit, the tax paid.
“When a company, by virtue of a collective agreement (negotiation made with the employer’s union) contracts a health plan, it can receive credit; and the other company that is obliged by virtue of a collective agreement (negotiation made directly with the company) to contract this same plan, would not be entitled to the credit”, stated Checchia.
Crediting is a way of ensuring that the tax on consumption is borne only by the end consumer. As a rule of the tax reform, companies that operate in the middle of the production or service chain and pay IBS and CBS on their acquisitions can have the value returned in the form of credit, to later be deducted from the taxes owed to the government. Companies that provide products or services that do not qualify for credit therefore fear being less attractive to the market.
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The demand was also made by the representative of the Confederation of Santas Casas and Philanthropic Hospitals (CMB), Renato Guilherme Machado Nunes. Philanthropic entities are immune (they cannot be charged with new taxes) and cannot use credits from purchases they make.
Vehicles for PcD
The president of the National Association for the Support of People with Disabilities (AnaPcD), Abrão Dib, asked that the new zero VAT for vehicle purchases by PwD be possible for vehicles worth up to R$200,000. The text provides for a maximum value of R$150,000 per vehicle, with a maximum of R$70,000 of the purchase being tax exempt.
For Abrão Dib, the reduction is not a “benefit”, but a compensation from the State for not providing appropriate public transport for the needs of PwD.
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“Today, people stop buying a custom-made wheelchair to have a car in the garage, because they need the car to work, to receive medical treatment”, observed Dib.
Gyms
Representative of the Brazilian Association of Gyms (Acad Brasil), Emerson Casali Almeida stated that the requirements required for gyms to enjoy the 30% reduction in CBS and IBS will make the favored treatment unfeasible for the majority of establishments.
The project only allows the reduction if, cumulatively, the academy:
- have members with professional council qualifications;
- does not have a legal entity as a partner nor is it a partner of another legal entity;
- not carry out activities different from the partners’ professional qualifications;
- has services related to the core activity provided directly by the partners.
According to Almeida, the result will be a market with inequality in the collection of taxes from establishments, in which few will have a 30% reduction in the rate; others will pay the full tax; and the majority will be small businesses with a simplified tax regime (Simples Nacional).
“There’s no way to compete. What happens to the Simples company? She can’t grow [em razão do limite anual de faturamento]. Then the guy opens another company, one in his mother’s name, the other in his sister’s name, and so on,” said Almeida.
No changes
Pension funds (which manage investment for complementary retirement) and health care plans under the self-management modality (when the public body or company itself manages its health plan) will not be VAT contributors.
The provision of PLP 68/2024 in the form approved by the deputies was defended by representatives of the Brazilian Association of Closed Supplementary Pension Entities (Abrapp), the National Union of Health Self-Management Institutions (Unidas) and the National Association of Banco do Brasil Employees Brazil (Anabb).
