After a year and a half in Osasco in Greater São Paulo, Uber should take the headquarters back to the capital of São Paulo. The return was announced on Tuesday night (4) by the mayor of São Paulo, Ricardo Nunes (MDB), in a meeting with company executives.
In a note, the Nunes management says it wants to strengthen itself as the country’s main technology hub and that, for that, it reduced the ISS (Service Tax) rate. The collection of the tax dropped from 5% to 2% at the end of last year.
The address of the new headquarters in São Paulo has not yet been chosen. In May 2021, the company had announced the construction of a new space in Osasco, called Uber Campus, which would have 33,000 square meters of offices. The project never got off the ground.
Asked if the decision to return to the capital involved the ISS reduction, Uber replied, in a note, that the reason was the company’s hybrid work policy.
“We observed, for example, that it is not necessary to make places available for all employees at the same time, since the physical presence has become much more rotating. We decided to establish our headquarters in Brazil in a space suitable for the new work dynamics”, he says. the company.
The change is another chapter in the tax dispute between Osasco and São Paulo, with the participation of CPI dos Applications. The São Paulo Chamber group is investigating app companies such as Uber and 99, which announced its return to the capital in May, which operate in the capital and are headquartered in other cities.
In March, councilors of the CPI, chaired by Adilson Amadeu (União), went to the planned location for Uber’s headquarters in Osasco, an action that generated friction between the mayors. Osasco’s representative, Rogério Lins (Podemos), said at the time that he called Nunes to complain about the operation. “People have to know how to lose too, right? You have to respect”, said Lins.
Representatives of the CPI celebrated the return of Uber to the capital and estimate an increase of R$ 200 million with the collection of ISS. “The return is another victory for the CPI, which investigates, among other suspicions, evidence of tax evasion by transport and delivery companies that have established themselves in cities in the metropolitan region to pay less taxes”, says the commission, in a note.
In an interview with Sheet on Wednesday afternoon (5), Amadeu declared that the company’s return to the capital does not mean the relaxation of investigations.
“It’s not fair that they [Uber] make extensive use of the São Paulo highway, with more than 80% of the fleet concentrated here, and be based in Osasco. In fact, they don’t have anything in Osasco, it was to deceive. They came back because we put pressure on them, and we will not let up,” says the councilor.
He says the commission should meet to charge Uber for the retroactive effect of taxes not paid by the company. “There are billions of reais that were not paid correctly. We will charge. According to our calculations, it would be possible to build a new Hospital das Clínicas with that money”.
According to Amadeu, taxes were not collected correctly. “To date, companies like Uber and 99 have made self-declared payments. You go into a restaurant, eat steak and pizza, then pay as you please? It’s not like that.”
The councilor also argues that rules should be imposed to limit the circulation of vehicles registered with Uber, giving more space to taxi drivers. “How do you put 300,000 cars on the street if a category like taxi drivers has only 44,000? We can put 80,000 of each and serve the population. In addition to retroactive payments, which must be paid, the word is regulation.”
Interlocutors of the CPI of Applications claim that the members of the commission have confidential documents with the amount of taxes paid by Uber to the city of São Paulo, which would provide the basis for the collection of retroactive payments.
After the publication of the report and the statement by the councilor, Uber said, in a note, that it does not owe retroactive amounts to the municipality of São Paulo and that there are no irregularities.
The company also denied influence of the CPI dos Applications in the return of the headquarters to the capital and affirmed that the decision was motivated by a change in the company’s strategy in the country. She also criticized the discussion of the limit of application vehicles in circulation.
The proposal was a bill by Amadeu, which proposed the imposition of a cap on the number of application vehicles in the city.
“In Uber’s view, discussing topics such as the limit on the number of vehicles in the city serves the sole purpose of recreating a culture of privileges granted to only a certain number of people. always dynamic and growing, can be balanced by the offer. “, says the text.
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