THE President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defended, this Thursday (9), that the financial system, especially fintechs, “pay the tax owed to this country”. Lula commented on the decision of the Chamber of Deputies to remove the vote on the provisional measure (MP) which would tax income from financial investments and sports betting and compensate for the revocation of a decree that provided for increase in the Tax on Financial Operations (IOF)which was criticized by the financial market and parliamentarians.
The government must now look for other alternatives to increase revenue and meet the fiscal target, spending cuts must also be made. Lula has a travel schedule until the beginning of next week and, according to him, upon his return, he will gather his team to evaluate possible scenarios.
“I’ll be back on Wednesday. [15] to Brasília, then yes, I will bring the government together to discuss how we are going to propose that the financial system, especially fintechs, which are currently larger than banks, pay the tax owed to this country”, said Lula in an interview with Rádio Piatã, in Bahia. Today, the president is fulfilling an agenda in the state.
To the fintechs They are innovation companies that differentiate themselves by using technology to offer digital financial services. According to Lula, today, there is Fintechs larger than some banks and that do not pay taxes proportional to the size of the business.
The MP needed to be approved by this Wednesday (8) so as not to lose its effectiveness. With the withdrawal of the agenda, presented by the opposition, the text expired.
The original version of the MP proposed the taxation of billionaires, banks and bets (electronic betting companies) as a way to increase revenue. The idea, for example, was to tax the gross revenue from bets at a rate between 12% and 18%, in addition to taxing financial investments, such as Agricultural Credit Letters (LCA), Real Estate Credit (LCI) and Development Letters (LCD), as well as interest on equity.
The initial forecast was to raise around R$10.5 billion in 2025 and R$21 billion in 2026. With negotiations, the projection fell to R$17 billion. THE text also predicted a cut of R$4.28 billion in mandatory spending.
“We were proposing a [taxação] of 18%, was negotiated for the [bets] pay only 12%, yet they didn’t want to and refused to pay. It’s funny that working people pay 27.5% income tax on their salaries and the rich don’t want to pay 12%, they don’t want to pay 18%”, said Lula.
THE president reaffirmed that it was not a defeat for the governmentit was a defeat imposed on the Brazilian people.
“They defeated the possibility of improving the quality of life of the Brazilian people, taking more money from the rich and distributing it to the poor. That’s what happened yesterday in the National Congress,” he said.
Before voting, the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, demanded that the National Congress comply with the agreement signed with the federal government to approve the MP. Haddad said that the government maintained dialogue with parliamentarians and made concessions. However, parties in the center had been positioning themselves against the measure.
