Tax Reform enters real life and communication becomes a greater challenge for companies

After years of political negotiations, disputes between sectors and intense technical debates in the National Congress, the Tax Reform officially entered its implementation phase in 2026. For experts gathered this Wednesday (6), at Aberje headquarters, in São Paulo, the most complex challenge begins now: communicating these changes to companies, consumers and society as a whole.

The consensus among economists and experts in taxation and communication was clear: approving the reform was difficult, but making the new system understandable for the country could be even more complicated.

The debate, promoted by Aberje in partnership with the InfoMoneybrought together representatives from the market, academia and corporate communications to discuss the impacts of the reform on companies, sectors and production chains, highlighting the strategic role of communication in this transition process.

From political negotiation to impact on everyday life

The perception is that the reform left the abstract terrain of negotiations and entered the operational reality of companies and consumption.

“When we discussed the reform, we spoke in large blocks. Nobody went into the details of the invoice while the reform was being approved”, said Vanessa Canado, senior professor and coordinator of the Insper Taxation Center and former special advisor to the Ministry of Economy.

Now, according to her, the scenario is different. “The more details, the more difficult. Implementation, from a general point of view, is more complex than the political process itself”, he said.

In his assessment, one of the main challenges of this new phase will be to transform a highly technical change into understandable information for companies, consumers and workers.

The transition period also appeared as one of the main factors of insecurity. For Rodolfo Margato, vice-president of Economic Research at XP Investimentos, the reform has already overcome a delicate stage from a political point of view, but it still needs to be translated into concrete effects for economic agents.

“Therefore, communication will be the biggest challenge, especially during the transition period, which runs until 2032 and is still nebulous, requiring specific studies for sectors and companies,” he stated.

According to him, there is a perception that implementation will move forward without significant setbacks, even in the event of a change of government.

“The problem is less in the continuity of the reform and more in the adaptation capacity of those involved. And, at this moment, communication becomes the great challenge for all affected agents”, he said.

Transparency x noise

The debate also showed that Tax Reform is no longer a topic restricted to the tax and financial areas of companies.

With the creation of dual VAT, formed by the federal CBS and the IBS of states and municipalities, the trend is towards greater transparency regarding the tax burden on goods and services, with taxes appearing more clearly on invoices, including for the end consumer.

“We will be able to effectively see how much tax we are paying”, said Vanessa Canado. In practice, this tends to change not only companies’ internal processes, but also their relationships with consumers, suppliers and investors.

For the CEO of InfoMoneyRodrigo Flores, this reform will be the biggest tax revolution in the country and will bring great challenges, which will cause anxiety due to the lack of security. “Therefore, reliable information will be fundamental in this regard,” he said.

“After the discussion phase between technicians, politicians, accountants and tax experts has passed, we need to talk about the reform, which will take time to be implemented and which will redesign the way taxes are charged in Brazil”, said Aberje’s chief economist, Leonardo Müller.

It is in this context that corporate communication gains prominence. The debaters’ assessment is that companies will now need to better explain price changes, contract reviews, cost changes, operational adaptations and even impacts on products and services in an environment still surrounded by doubts and disputes between narratives.

According to the event organizers, the reform represents an “institutional transition” with the potential to change competitiveness criteria and even the reputational dynamics of companies. The role of communication is no longer just institutional and begins to involve risk management and strategic alignment, precisely to avoid misinformation during the long transition period.

As the implementation will be gradual and will involve coexistence between old and new systems for several years, experts believe that the lack of clarity can generate noise both within companies and in their relationship with the market. The concern increases because many sectors are still trying to calculate the real effects of the reform on prices, margins and competitiveness.

“In this scenario, companies must seek greater efficiency, especially because the new system eliminates a lot of taxes that required corporations to maintain gigantic departments to ensure compliance,” explains Margato. These cost reductions, combined with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), should give the tax sectors greater productivity and effectiveness, leading to cost reductions that will impact their final products, in the expert’s opinion.

For experts, the discussion reinforced a growing perception in the market: Tax Reform is no longer just a legislative agenda and has become an operational, economic — and now also a communication — challenge, which will require transforming a complex system into something intelligible for those who pay taxes, produce, sell and consume.