Government edits ordinance to renegotiate debts of Simples companies, but measure is insufficient

The Jair Bolsonaro government (PL) edited this Tuesday (11) an ordinance to renegotiate debts of Simples Nacional companies with the PGFN (Attorney General’s Office).

The measure is an attempt by the president to wave at micro and small companies after having vetoed — against his will — a project that would open a wide negotiation of debts for this public.

Government sources admit, however, that the ordinance is not very effective in solving the problem. The measure only covers debts already registered in the Union’s active debt, not including those in the administrative phase of collection by the Federal Revenue.

The veto of the Simples Nacional Refis opened a crisis within the government and angered the National Congress, where leaders had given broad support to the measure.

The president himself has been saying in interviews that the clash between the political and economic teams has generated unease in the government.

“I was forced to veto the renegotiation of the debts of small and micro-enterprises. This logically caused stress between me and the economic team, in a good way”, said Bolsonaro, on Monday (10). A few days earlier, he even said that Paulo Guedes’ portfolio “leaves something to be desired”.

Since the veto, Bolsonaro has ordered his aides to find a solution to the debts of smaller companies. On Monday, after talking to Paulo Guedes, the president announced that there would be an ordinance to deal with the issue, but did not give details.

The ordinance edition of the tax transaction — as this type of negotiation is called — had already been considered since last week, but ended up having little progress since then.

A leaf found that, until the morning of this Tuesday, there was no act concluded for publication. The technicians were summoned at the last minute to finalize the details of the measure, published in an extra edition of the Official Gazette of the Union.

According to the ordinance, Simples Nacional companies will have until March 31 to join the negotiation. Those who opt for the modality will need to pay an entry equivalent to 1% of the negotiated value, in up to eight installments.

The remaining balance of the debt must be paid in up to 137 installments, with discounts of up to 100% in interest, fines and charges. The rebate, however, cannot be greater than 70% of the total debt value (principal plus corrections).

In the tax transaction, the discount amount is defined on a case-by-case basis by the PGFN, according to the debtor’s ability to pay. The same logic will be applied in the case of the ordinance focused on Simples Nacional companies.

If the company has had losses during the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, this will be computed as a reduction in the company’s ability to pay.

There is also the possibility of joining the small value transaction (for debts up to R$ 72,720), with a down payment of 1% and discounts of up to 50%, depending on the payment term chosen.

According to the Ministry of Economy, 1.8 million companies are registered in the Union’s active debt for Simple Nacional debts, of which 160 thousand are individual microentrepreneurs (MEIs). The total amount of debts is R$ 137.2 billion.

Deputy Marco Bertaiolli (PSD-SP), who was the rapporteur for Refis do Simples in the Chamber, said that the ordinance is an attempt by the government to alleviate the discomfort caused by the veto. “This ordinance minimizes [o problema] and offers an alternative. But it is not comprehensive like Refis”, he said.

According to Bertaiolli, the PGFN act does not remove the National Congress’ willingness to override the presidential veto. “Let’s take it down,” he assured.

Economic sources told the leaf that there is still another problem to be solved and that is not the target of the ordinance: the risk of excluding companies from the Simples regime due to the existence of tax debts.

The government is studying the extension of the deadline for the regularization of these debts, to March 31 or April 29, giving time for Congress to reverse the veto on Refis. The overthrow of the veto has been defended by the President of the Republic himself.

For this extension, it is necessary to approve a resolution by the Managing Committee of Simples Nacional, formed by representatives of the federal government, states, municipalities and Sebrae. The same procedure has already been adopted in other years.

A longer period of regularization helps companies because it removes the risk of them being excluded after opting for the simplified regime. Today, the two steps —option and regularization— must be completed by January 31.

The author of the Refis proposal, deputy leader of the government in the Senate, Jorginho Mello (PL-SC), said that everything is now resolved, counting on the overthrow of the veto on the return of legislative work.

“The veto is overturned even with the ordinance, of course, normal. The ordinance was what needed to be done and now everything is fine, I spoke to the president, [com] Guedes,” he told Folha.

According to Mello, the Simples Management Committee is already preparing the necessary resolution for the extension of the regularization deadline.