The Senate approved this Wednesday (17) a bill which reduces by 10% part of the tax advantages of companies and increases taxes on betting (betting houses), fintechs and JCP (Interest on equity, a mechanism used by large companies to finance themselves and which serves the company to remunerate its partners and shareholders).
The project, approved by the House in the early morning, goes to presidential approval. The score in the Senate was 62 votes for the project and 6 votes against.
The text defended by the Lula government (PT) avoids a spending reduction of more than 20 billion reais in the 2026 budget, which would also affect parliamentary amendments. The approval unlocks the vote on the budget, which must take place by Friday (19) in Congress, before the holidays.
Senators approved the proposal without modification so that a new analysis would not be necessary from the House – which will not be in session again this year. The government reached an agreement with the opposition, which did not obstruct the proposal, in exchange that members of the government also did not obstruct the vote on the project that reduces the prison term of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and others convicted of attempted coup d’état.
The bill excluded payroll and industrial policy-related programs for the information technology, communications and semiconductor sectors from the exemption and reduced tax benefits. A minimum turnover of 5 million reais has also been set to reduce the tax advantage of companies subject to the presumed profits regime.
The head of government in Congress, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (PT-AP), was the rapporteur of the project and argued that it was important to regularly review tax benefits. “We must not forget that these taxes, credits or financial benefits will be given to small, specific groups at the cost of reducing revenues that would be used for other public policies,” he said.
The sectors concerned, however, protested. “The productive sector will pay, once again, for the adjustment of public accounts. The Executive must act to contain the growth of spending, but this is not the signal for 2026, where federal spending is expected to experience real growth of 4.6%,” said the CNI (National Confederation of Industry) in a note.
The entity said that the linear reduction will achieve attractive tax benefits, such as those aimed at innovation and development in the North, North-East and Central-West regions, will compromise the growth capacity of the country’s industry and will create legal insecurity, changing the rules for investments already planned or in progress.
FarmaBrasil Group president Reginaldo Arcuri said the project imposes “severe restrictions” on the use of tax credits, increases the costs of 65% of medicines sold in Brazil and also undermines the reduced ICMS rates, which are conditional on maintaining the federal zero rate.
“As the pharmaceutical market is regulated by the Medicines Market Regulation Chamber (CMED), linked to the federal government, any tax changes must be automatically reflected in the final price,” Arcuri said.
Despite protests, the project was adopted by the Senate less than 24 hours after being approved in the House – where the opinion on the sectors affected and those spared was only made public a few minutes before the text entered into discussion.
The 10% reduction in benefits will apply to those granted on the basis of nine taxes: PIS/Pasep, PIS/Pasep-Importation, Cofins, Cofins-Importation, IRPJ (Corporate Income Tax), CSLL (Social Contribution on Net Profit), Import Tax, IPI (Tax on Industrialized Products) and the employer’s Social Contribution. Part of it was removed during the tax reform and would end in 2032.
The project spares the Manaus Free Trade Zone, the basic food basket, Minha Casa Minha Vida, ProUni (University for All Program), incentives granted for a specific period of time whose beneficiary has already fulfilled the onerous conditions of enjoyment and others with constitutional immunities from being removed.
Concessions in benefit cuts were offset by increases in other taxes. The JCP mechanism, used mainly by banks, industries and the real estate sector, saw taxation increase from 15% to 17.5%.
Betting will see a gradual increase in the Gross Gaming Revenue (GRP) rate, which is currently 12%. The project increases it to 13% in 2026, 14% in 2027 and 15% in 2028. Despite this, the sector ended up benefiting from last-minute negotiations, with the government aiming for a larger increase, to 18%, of a tax approved by the Senate. Parliamentarians lobbied against the measure, saying it would expand the illegal market.
In the case of fintechs, CSLL will also increase in stages. The rate for fintechs and payment institutions, over-the-counter market administrators, stock and commodity exchanges will increase from 9% to 12% in 2026. From 2028, it will increase to 15%.
For credit, financing, investment and capitalization companies, the rate will increase from 15% to 17.5% in 2026 and to 20% in 2028. The 20% levy is currently exclusive to banks.
Zetta, who represents fintechs, criticized the vote and said it went against the sector’s agenda to increase competitiveness. “It is surprising that sectors that have expanded access to financial services, encouraged formalization and increased competition in the sector are being penalized, while other activities, whose negative social effects are already widely recognized and reported, do not face proportionate burdens,” he said in a note.
The project’s rapporteur in the House, MP Aguinaldo Ribeiro (PP-PB), said that the Ministry of Finance has calculated that the impact next year will be R$17.5 billion in revenue recovery, R$2.5 billion in tax increases with the JCP tax change, R$1.6 billion with fintechs and R$850 million in betting.
Congress also benefited from the plan to increase payment for parliamentary amendments. The text allows those recorded as balances to be paid between 2019 and 2023 and which have been canceled to be revalidated and can be settled by December 2026. In addition, it creates a mechanism to allow settlement even in the event of insufficient amounts for the full execution of the proposed objects.
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