Tax Benefits

CONTENT PRODUCED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MATTOS FILHO LAW FIRM

ISS TECH

Municipal Law 7.000/2021, among other provisions, determined the application of a reduced rate for companies installed in two regions considered strategic in the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro: in the delimited area of the Urban Operation of the Port of Rio de Janeiro Region, except for the Avenues Rio Branco and Presidente Vargas or the Parque Tecnológico of Rio (in Ilha do Fundão). In practice, the ISS tax rate was reduced from 5% to 2%.

To benefit from this reduction, the company must be located in the geographical area mentioned above and carry out one of these activities:

  • a) Services of intermediation of service contracts between individuals carried out exclusively through the Internet;
  • b) Services mentioned in item 1 of art. 8 of Law 691/84:
  • 1 - Information technology and similar services.
  • 1.01 - Systems analysis and development.
  • 1.02 - Programming.
  • 1.03 - Processing, storage or hosting of data, text, images, videos, electronic pages, applications and information systems, among other formats, and the like. (Amendment by Law No. 6263 OF 11/10/2017).
  • 1.04 - Development of computer programs, including electronic games, regardless of the architecture of the machine on which the program will run, including tablets, smartphones and the like. (Amendment by Law No. 6263 of 11/10/2017).
  • 1.05 - Licensing or assignment of the right to use computer programs.
  • 1.06 - Computer consulting and advisory services.
  • 1.07 - IT technical support, including installation, configuration and maintenance of computer programs and databases.
  • 1.08 - Planning, creation, maintenance and updating of electronic pages.
  • 1.09 - Making available, without definitive assignment, audio, video, image and text content via the internet, respecting the immunity of books, newspapers and periodicals (except for the distribution of content by providers of Conditioned Access Service, referred to in Law No. 12485 of September 12, 2011). (Added by Law No. 6263 of 11/10/2017).
  • c) Research and development services (except market research).
  • d) Biology, biotechnology and chemistry services.

ISS FRANQUIAS (Franchising)

Law 1.153/2022, which proposes the establishment of the ISS Neutral Program to provide incentives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through tax incentives for the main participants in the carbon market.

The program allows the ISS rate to be reduced from 5 to 2% on the following services:

ISS JOGOS (Games/Betting)

The Municipal Chamber of Rio de Janeiro is discussing Bill 1822/2023, presented by the Executive Branch, which aims to reduce the rate of the ISS tax from 5% to 2% on services related to the distribution and sale of tickets and other lottery products, bingos, cards, vouchers or betting coupons, raffles, prizes, including those arising from capitalization bonds and similar products.

Following in the footsteps of other large metropolises such as São Paulo, the PL aims to attract sports betting companies to the city of Rio de Janeiro, granting tax benefits to companies operating in this sector.

ISS NEUTRO (Neutral)

Law 1.153/2022 proposes the establishment of the ISS Neutral Program, which seeks to encourage the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through tax incentives for the main participants in the carbon market.

The program allows the reduction of the ISS rate from 5 to 2% on the following services:

  • Carbon credit project development and auditing services;
  • Carbon credit registration and certification services;
  • Carbon trading platform services (Green Exchange); and
  • Greenhouse gas emissions inventory and auditing services.

In addition, the program also provides for the reduction of the ISS tax to 2% on carbon credit transactions carried out by companies that intend to offset their greenhouse gas emissions in the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro.

ISS CRIPTO (Crypto)

The Municipality of Rio de Janeiro issued Decree 51,498/2022, which allows IPTU taxpayers to use their cryptocurrency wallets to pay the tax.

This payment will be intermediated by Virtual Assets Service Providers/Cryptoactive Assets Exchange, which must be previously accredited by the Municipality in order to perform this service.

These companies will convert the crypto assets into Brazilian Reais. Thus, the Municipality will receive 100% of the value in reais, at no additional cost to the public coffers.

Companies interested in this operation must, among other obligations, be accredited with the municipality, have a CNPJ, keep their client records updated in a manner similar to the Central Bank's determinations for financial institutions, and have a service contract with one of the Municipality's collecting banks.

This measure is part of a broader project that emerged from a working group created by Decree 50.145/2022, which aims to boost the market for digital currencies and blockchain technologies, integrating these innovations to the Rio economy through studies and projects.