Brazil’s Lower House passes bill to tax streaming platforms
Brazilian lawmakers agreed to tax streaming platforms such as Netflix and YouTube
Brazil’s Lower House passed on Tuesday a bill providing for the collection of taxes on streaming services submitted by the rapporteur, Congressman Doutor Luizinho (PP-RJ). Additional wording adjustments are expected to be made on Wednesday.
As per the new norm, streaming platforms will have to pay the Contribution for the Development of the National Film Industry (Condecine). The so-called video on demand (VoD) services, such as Netflix, television via apps, such as Claro TV+, and audiovisual content sharing, such as YouTube, will have to pay the tax ranging from 0.1% to 4% depending on gross annual revenue, excluding indirect taxes and including advertising revenue. Those with revenues of up to R$4.8 million (US$889,440), which is the ceiling for small businesses in the Simples Nacional tax regime, will be exempt.
VoD services will pay from 0.5% to 4%, with fixed deductible installments ranging from R$24,000 (US$ 4,447.2) to R$7.14 million (US$1,323,042) in five brackets. Sharing services will pay rates ranging from 0.1% to 0.8%, with deductible installments ranging from R$4,800 (US$889.44) to R$1.4 million (US$259,420).
According to the report, the contribution may be reduced by 75% if more than half of the total audiovisual content offered by the platform is national.
According to the rapporteur, platforms may have up to 700 national works in their catalog as a minimum requirement to comply with the 10% quota for Brazilian content.
Filmmakers, screenwriters, producers, and audiovisual technicians protested on Monday in several capitals against the bill, claiming it represents a historic risk of dismantling the national audiovisual industry, as it contradicts Ancine’s technical opinion and the consensus built with civil society, and favors large foreign companies in the sector. (Source: Agencia Brazil)