The Federal Senate approved this Tuesday (30) the bill that extends the Emergency Service Sector Resumption Program (Perse), to encourage the events sector, until December 2026. The proposal sets a ceiling of R$ 15 billion in tax waivers and reduces the activities benefiting from the program from 44 to 30. The text approved by the senators maintained the rules that had already been approved last week by the Chamber of Deputies. Now, the project goes to face-to-face sanction.
Approval occurred after consensus reached between the National Congress and the federal government. Perse was created in 2021, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, to help the events sector, which was practically paralyzed during that period. The government had worked in recent months to completely end the program’s tax benefits, but faced resistance from parliamentarians and affected sectors. The agreement allows for the gradual end of the program in two years.
According to the approved text, the rates of four federal taxes (IRPJ, CSLL, Cofins and Contribution to PIS/Pasep) will be reduced to zero until December 2026, as long as the program’s fiscal cost ceiling is observed. Companies taxed based on real profit or arbitrated profit will be able to count on all the benefits of Perse in 2024, but, in 2025 and 2026, the rate reduced to zero will be restricted to Cofins and Contribution to PIS/Pasep. Event companies that were inactive in March 2022 will not be able to participate in the program.
“Long live Perse. any program, that the barriers be put in place, as they were put in place”, said senator Daniella Ribeiro (PSD-PB), in a speech after the symbolic approval of the text.
The approved project establishes bimonthly monitoring by the Federal Revenue Service of tax exemptions. The expectation is that the government will sanction the measure without vetoes, maintaining the agreement signed with the Legislature and companies in the sector, in the coming days.
