BRASILIA, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Proposals for a Brazilian transactions tax being drawn up by the economy ministry will apply to all payments, not just digital ones, a senior ministry official said on Wednesday.
Vanessa Canado, special adviser to Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, said any new tax would have to be modeled for an increasingly digital economy, but it would have to apply to all transactions.
As part of a sweeping reform to simplify and make more efficient Brazil's complex tax system, Guedes is keen to implement some form of transactions tax similar to the unpopular "CPMF" tax that was scrapped in 2007.
"This is the idea the minister has in mind, and legislation is being designed to reflect this new digital world traceable through financial transactions," Canado said in an online event hosted by newspapers O Globo and Valor Economico.
"But to be a broad-based tax, it cannot not be levied on digital transactions only, from the digital economy. It has to apply to all transactions in the economy," she said.
According to Canado, details of the new tax will be announced "closer to the submission of the proposal" to Congress.
Earlier this month, Guedes slammed suggestions that these proposals were just a rehash of the CPMF tax as malicious and ignorant.
Brazil's lower house speaker Maia says will oppose transactions tax
BREAKINGVIEWS-Brazil’s tax reform is too little, too late
(Reporting by Marcela Ayres Writing by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
((jamie.mcgeever@thomsonreuters.com; +55 (0)11 97189 3169; Reuters Messaging: jamie.mcgeever.reuters.com@reuters.net))
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.