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SINTEGRA: the beginning of everything

The Integrated System of Information about Interstate Operations with Goods and Services (SINTEGRA) was conceived with the aims of facilitating the provision of information from taxpayers to the state tax authorities, enabling the exchange of information between these entities and the Federal Revenue, and improving data flow in the Tax Administration (AT). SINTEGRA enables the computerized control of interstate inputs and outputs performed by the taxpayers of the Tax on the Circulation of Goods and Rendering of Services (ICMS).

SINTEGRA follows the model of the Value-Added Tax (VAT) of the European Union, but it has been adapted to the particularities of Brazil. That is, the system consists of a set of administrative procedures and computerized support systems that were adopted simultaneously by the ATs of the various Units of the Brazilian Federation (UF).

This System was established with the intention of giving consistency and propitiating savings in various modernization initiatives of the state taxation systems, which are the object of the National Support Program in Tax Administration for the Brazilian States (PNAFE). This program, which is financed with resources from the BID and the Brazilian states, aims to contribute to the states’ financial equilibrium through actions for improving their collection instruments and expense control mechanisms. This program has sponsored various improvement processes for the state ATs, including personnel training, improvement of computational infrastructure, and consultants for planning, among other aspects.

SINTEGRA was conceived with the following main guidelines: to safeguard the constitutional principles of federalism; to receive quality information; to facilitate the provision of required information to the taxpayers and to preserve fiscal secrecy.

Its objectives can be considered on two fronts. On the taxpayer side, its purpose is to simplify and homogenize the obligations of provision of information about purchases, sales, and rendering of services. On the side of the state tax authorities, it aims to encourage greater quickness and trustworthiness in the treatment of information received from the taxpayers, as well as in the exchange of data among the states.

Its main goals are: to computerize and standardize the relationship between taxpayer and tax authority; to verify and follow up the operations performed by the taxpayers of the ICMS; to investigate anomalous behavior and to make information available to the auditors.

To administrate SINTEGRA, each Brazilian state was responsible for creating a State Liaison Unit (UEE) inside the organizational structure of its Department of Finance.

In order to manage the activities of this System on a national level, the GT-15 Work Management Group (SINTEGRA) was created. This group brings together the representatives of the System referred to in each Brazilian state. The tax agent in charge of managing the UEE of each state is responsible for participating quarterly in this group’s meetings.

All of the ICMS taxpayers that issue tax documents and/or tax deed books through the electronic data processing system – even through third parties (accountants, external CPD, etc.) – must send their information to SINTEGRA. This obligation of providing a magnetic archive was established by Decree 4.204 of August 16, 2000. A validation program, which consists of a specific software that is made available by the Department of Finance, is necessary for sending the data. This software verifies that the file to be delivered to the Department is in accordance with the rules established in ICMS Agreement 57/95.

In this context, aiming to help the organizations meet the rules established by the tax authority, Lex Consult has developed its software for electronic tax auditing, thus offering its clients tax safety and making available pioneering services based on the concept of Tax Technology.

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