Fintechs representatives were not consulted on the tax changes involving the sector proposed by the Ministry of Finance, the president of ABFINTECHS, Diego Perez, told Infomoney. He states that increasing the rate should impact the price of financial services and seek dialogue with the executive, although he believes that the sector advancement in the debates is in the legislature.
Among those, Fernando Haddad, as an alternative to the increase in the tax on financial operations (IOF) is the change in the rules for social contribution on net income (CSLL) of financial institutions.
Under current rules, CSLL for financial and payment institutions is 9%, 15%or 20%. In the smallest tax are the small fintechs.
The government suggested that this track could be cut. According to Perez, it means that fintechs would need to pay the same medium -sized contribution range of 15%. The 20% are paid by traditional banks.
Haddad will present for the approval of Congress a provisional measure that also involves the taxation of previously exempt fixed income securities, such as LCIs and LCAs, and the increase in the fare on bookmakers. The measures are an alternative to the decree that on funds transfers for investment funds abroad, published 10 days ago.
“In these 10 days, we tried to articulate with the Ministry of Finance, we had no agenda,” says Perez. “Potentially we will only be able to advance in the House, Congress. As a legislative process will follow, and there are benches within the congress that are contrary to government measures, or that think differently, we will try to support these parliamentarians to present amendments, or aparted projects.”
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The association does not yet have a proposal with defined numbers, but a possible alternative, in the scenario in which taxation is unavoidable, it is a gradual increase in the rate, with intermediate ranges between 9% to 15%.
Perez argues that the increase in the rate should make the cost of financial services offered by fintechs more expensive. “The margins where the sector operates are already relatively low, because they offer mostly free service, so it is very common for you to see fintechs that issue credit card without charging annuity, digital accounts that do not have monthly use fare, do not charge withdrawal fees,” he says.
This model causes fintechs to win for the volume of customers. If the costs of these companies increase and not large banks, they lose competitiveness – to the limit, customers would migrate to banks, says the president of ABFINTECHS.
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The great asymmetry, however, lies in the fact that fintechs operate in the presumed profit regime in the Legal Entities Income Tax (IRPJ), argues Perez. By the real profit regime, used by banks, there is a possibility of compensation for losses and recovery of tax credits.
“Some of the fintechs also do not have access to guarantee structures such as FGC, do not have a liquidity of assets on the market as large banks do in interbank deposits,” he says. “Penalizing Fintech with a taxed taxation of a bank without delivering the same tools that banks have to compensate for these gains with stressed wallets, with unpaid expired titles or lack of access to warranty mechanisms, makes the game very unfair.”
