State Tax on Circulation of Goods and Services
In Portuguese State Tax on Circulation of Goods and Services is named Imposto Sobre Circulação de Mercadorias e Serviços and often referred to by the abbreviation ICMS .
ICMS is the Brazilian tax charged upon sales, services, movement of goods, transportation and communication services, and supplying of any goods.
The tax is paid by legal entities and citizens responsible for the commercialization of any good, importation of goods, acquisition of products seized by customs and acquisition of petroleum products derived from other countries.
Since ICMS is a state tax, it's up to each Brazilian State to establish their own tax rate, which means that the ICMS rate varies among the states of Brazil. In 2013, the rates of ICMS were:
- 17% in Acre, Alagoas, Amazonas, Amapá, Bahia, Ceará, Distrito Federal, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Pará, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul, Rondônia, Roraima, Santa Catarina, Sergipe e Tocantins.
- 18% in Minas Gerais, Paraná and São Paulo.
- 19% in Rio de Janeiro.