All about Inscrição Estadual
As we have approached in other articles, the process of opening a company in Brazil requires several steps and registrations before your business actually starts to operate. In this article we will give you an explanation of Inscrição Estadual, one of the steps required to open a company in Brazil
Inscrição Estadual (IE) is the registration of the ICMS taxpayer and is administrated by Receita Estadual, the state revenue department. Once IE is issued, the ICMS taxpayer will have its company formally registered at the revenue department of the state in which it is established.
Inscrição Estadual is mandatory for each and every company operating in the sectors of trade, industry and intermuncipal or interstate transportation services. Services related to the communication and services sector are also expected to request the document. As it is linked to ICMS, companies exempted from this tax do not have to register at the state revenue department.
SINTEGRA
SINTEGRA - Sistema Integrado de Informações sobre Operações com Mercadorias e Serviços – is a system implemented in Brazil to facilitate the provision of information from taxpayers to state tax authorities, improving the data flow among tax administrations.
SINTEGRA provides the computerized control of interstate operations conducted by the ICMS taxpayer. The system is similar to the European VAT (value added tax) and allows the exchange of information between the state and federal revenue departments.
Every ICMS tax payer using fiscal equipment to issue fiscal documents through an electronic system of data processing must send information to SINTEGRA, even if the accounting is done by a third party, such as an accounting office.
Fiscal information is sent to SINTEGRA through software provided by each Secretaria da Fazenda, which are government offices responsible for the financial matters in each state.
How to register
Since 2006, Secretaria da Fazenda (government offices in charge of state financial matters) operates along with Secretaria da Receita Federal (government office responsible for federal financial matters), so communicating only one of the two offices about changes in the registration of your company is enough.
In order to register your company, you are required to fill in the Ficha Cadastral da Pessoa Jurídica (Legal Entity Registration Form) using PGD (Programa Gerador de Documentos), that can be downloaded here.
Be aware that in some states the registration must be requested prior to the business license. Here is a list of the documents required to issue an Inscrição Estadual:
- One notarized copy of the IPTU cover of the real estate where the headquarters is located;
- One notarized copy of the rental agreement;
- One notarized copy of the Cetesb protocol, dismissal or business license;
If the partner is a private person, the following documents must be presented:
- One notarized copy of the ID (RG, RNE or passport) and CPF of all the partners;
- One notarized copy of a proof of residence (maximum 30 days old) registered under the name of each partner. The address must match the one presented in the articles of association or “contrato social”;
If the partner is a legal entity, then the following documents must be presented:
- One notarized copy of the articles of association or its last consolidated change;
- One notarized copy of the ID card (RG, RNE or passport) and CPF of the management partner. If the partner is being represented by an attorney, then an notarized copy of the power of attorney must be presented, along with the attorney’s ID card and CPF.
- One notarized copy of a proof of residence registered under the management partner’s name or under the name of the attorney mentioned in the articles of association.
Once all the documents were gathered, the electronic document generated by PGD will be sent to the federal revenue department and you will receive an access code to follow the updates of your request. If no impediment is found in this first stage, you will receive a confirmation called DBE.
The next step is to send a copy of your request and the DBE to the address displayed in the option “Consulta da Situação do Pedido na Internet”. The federal revenue customer service will then analyze if your request was deferred. The result will be released online and you will be able to print a receipt proving that you are now registered at the state revenue department.