The Brazilian government is preparing a proposal for taxing information technology giants – big techs – in Brazil as part of an international agreement to tax this sector. According to Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, only the United States has not yet signed the agreement between the countries.
“It is an international agreement that Brazil signed. There is only one country left to sign the agreement now, which is precisely the United States. And all countries are getting ahead of themselves. Italy did it, Spain did it, and Brazil will have to do it to avoid being further harmed by the lack of regulation,” the minister told Brazil Agency this Thursday (12).
Brasília (DF) 09/12/2024 – Finance Minister Fernando Haddad participates in the Bom Dia program, Photo: Fabio Rodrigues-Pozzebom/ Brazil Agency
Even without the signature of the country that hosts the world’s main big techs, the Brazilian government intends to send a proposal to the Legislature still this year, according to information provided by the Ministry of Finance at the end of August.
According to the government, the issue is one of the pillars of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group that suggests economic and social measures to countries. The OECD proposes a minimum tax of 15% on multinationals by the countries where they operate, with the potential to raise US$200 billion per year worldwide. Countries such as Japan and South Korea have begun to adopt the tax.
Haddad added that Brazil should regulate big tech by observing the best experiences. “We have to work hard now to bring order to these unregulated sectors. We are doing this by the best international standards to adopt regulation here,” he concluded.
This week, the Senate’s Economic Affairs Committee (CAE) approved a request asking the Finance Minister for information on how this taxation of technology giants should be carried out. The senator who authored the request, Flávio Azevedo (PL-RN), complained that the measure would be “unfair”.
Big techs
While at the beginning of the 20th century oil companies were the most valuable in the world in terms of market value, today it is information technology companies that lead the ranking of the most powerful companies on the planet.
Of the ten biggest companies by market value listed by Companies Markey Capsix are from information technology: Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Alphabet/Google, Amazon and Meta/Facebook, all from the United States.
