After Shein, Shopee asks to join Brazil’s tax compliance program, but Congress has other plans for shipments

Asian e-commerce giant Shopee has asked to join the federal government’s tax compliance program Remessa Conforme, which exempts all international purchases of up to USD 50 from import tax for companies participating in the initiative. 

The program was launched in August, and in the past few weeks, fast-fashion behemoth Shein, Alibaba’s AliExpress, and Sinerlog have been admitted to participate in it — according to the Federal Revenue Service, Shein and AliExpress alone accounted for 67 percent of the total shipments sent to Brazil in the first half of this year. 

Like its Asian peers, Shopee is also expanding its operations in Brazil — joining the new tax compliance program has become part of this plan. In May, it announced the opening of two new distribution centers in the northeastern of the country to serve fast transit points for the redistribution of goods in the cross-docking model — by which goods collected from local sellers by logistics partners in first-mile hubs are reorganized and sent to last-mile hubs, before reaching the end consumer. 

With the two new warehouses, Shopee now has eight centers nationwide — the other six are located in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Paraná — and more than 60 secondary hubs, all capable of delivering 1.5 million packages daily.

In the first quarter, the company reached the milestone of 3 million local sellers on its marketplace. Over 85 percent of the sales in the country are already made through them, which explains the cross-docking model’s importance. 

Congress’ plans

The House Finance and Taxation Committee decided this week to hold a public hearing on a bill (PL 2339/22) that aims to tax international online purchases. The event date is not set yet, but it is the first step of a proposal that would radically change the new compliance program with international players.

Congressman Félix Mendonça Júnior’s bill was presented in October last year, before the l government’s program, and seeks to tax all “international postal shipments resulting from sales of foreign goods via the internet and other electronic means,” even remittances between individuals of up to USD 50, which are currently exempt from import tax.

The text is being processed conclusively, meaning that if it clears the permanent committees to which it was assigned, it will not require approval from the plenary. After the Finance and Taxation Committee, the proposal would only need to go through the Constitution and Justice Committee.

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