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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SPED was instituted in 2007 via Decree n. 6.022, as an “instrument that unifies the reception, validation, storage, and authentication of books and documents involved in the taxes and bookkeeping of entrepreneurs and corporate societies, through a single computerized flow of information.” Observe, in figure 1, the situation before the creation of this System.

 Figure 1

Note how the relationships with the various entities are established with SPED (figure 2).

Figure 2

This system also enables the books and documents involved in the fiscal and commercial bookkeeping of entrepreneurs and corporate societies to be emitted in electronic form. With this, the Brazilian Infrastructure of Public Keys (ICP-Brasil) was established. ICP-Brasil is “a set of techniques, practices, and procedures to be implemented by Brazilian governmental and private organizations with the objective of guaranteeing the authenticity, integrity, and legal validity of electronic documents, of support applications and of applications that utilize digital certificates, as well as the realization of secure electronic transactions” (Provisionary Measure n. 2.200-2 from 08/24/2001).

From this, the ECD or digital book (as it is called by the National Department of Commerce Registry – DNRC) is created. As previously mentioned, this is one of the subprojects of SPED. It was instituted through Normative Instruction n. 787 of the Secretariat of the Federal Revenue of Brazil (RFB), aiming to substitute paper bookkeeping while maintaining its accounting formality.

It is important to note that simply meeting the provisions of this Instruction does not guarantee that the file containing the ECD was properly prepared. That is, the simple validation of the archive that holds the ECD or its preparation in accordance with the RFB-approved layout is not a guarantee of success in this process. This shows the importance of involving not only technology professionals in this endeavor, but also specialists in the area of Brazilian taxation, who are essential in ensuring the integrity of the information that will be forwarded to SPED. Not to mention a system that interlaces and portrays these data.

These are peculiarities inherent to the sending of data to the Brazilian Tax Authorities, which was unified and computerized, it is, well as, a challenge to contemporary organizations located in national territory.

In the presence of these “ingredients” – professionals in Technology and in Taxation, as well as an adequate system – Tax Governance can be applied, which is nothing more than the coordination, elaboration of strategies, control, and review of tax costs. All this is made possible by the data provided by the system, which is fundamentally important in this context.

Lex Consult is the only Brazilian company that boasts this entire arsenal. It was the first organization to develop a pioneering concept called Tax Technology, through the synergy between the fields of tax intelligence and Information Technology. This concept relies on the experience acquired by its CEO and other executives in the public and private sectors – mainly in taxation entities. With this resource and the expertise of its team, it now provides the Tax Governance System, enabling its clients to efficiently manage their taxes. Taxes are a company’s largest expense; therefore, if they are not well managed, it will inevitably lead to bad results.

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This type of Management is divided into:

• HR provision: recruitment and selection;
• HR application: integration, design, and analysis of roles;
• HR development: training and organizational development;
• HR maintenance: social benefits and labor relations; and
• HR monitoring: HR information systems (software).

With the intention of attracting and polishing new talents, Lex Consult planned a provision process in order to refresh its HR with the famous “new blood.” The aim was to supply the company with young workers who were still in the academic environment, and therefore, would have lots of “gas” to put the contents of their studies into practice, in a real-life environment.

To this end, a careful recruitment was undertaken, involving a set of techniques and procedures aiming to attract potentially qualified candidates who were capable of performing the organization’s activities. Then, external evaluation professionals, hired for this purpose, selected the staff; the recruitment choices were centered not necessarily on the best candidates, but rather on those who could best adapt to Lex’s demands.

After the selection, the new staff members continued to the integration phase. The newly-hired interns attended an 8-hour training session in which they learned Lex Consult’s philosophy and deepened their knowledge of the Public System of Digital Bookkeeping (SPED) and Tax Governance. It was a day of immersion and growth. All of this was carried out with the transmission of knowledge and experience from Lex’s senior consultants.

It is actions like these that guarantee the future of an organization, using the present to prepare for the future and renewing it every day, without sacrificing any talent. This is the conscious position of Lex Consult.

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Lex Consult has accepted the challenge and it will again sponsor this important event, which is considered the best marketing investment for the IT market nationwide, with a unique opportunity to advertise and get to know the innovations of companies operating in this segment.

To this end, Lex Consult has set up a stall with an exclusive area, in order to receive all the customers of that forum, and it will make a presentation in Parallel Sessions, on the 2nd or 3rd day yet to be decided. It will also have a business room with 27m², which will be located in the foyer of the Golden Hall and will be a unique space to be used for meetings, to receive guests, such as an auditorium, or even a cocktail at the end of the day.

It is worth noting the biggest news of Lex Consult the SAP Forum 2012: a dinner served at the Sheraton WTC, which is a refined and luxurious space, located in an area outside the pool, which will welcome VIP guests in a very comfortable atmosphere suitable for relationships and business.

Presenting its brand and the peculiarities inherent in the provision of its service, centered on Tax Governance, is fully in line with the proposed theme for the SAP Forum 2012 once to create a corporate future, the company will have to take responsibility and awareness in the management of its taxes and that is where the expertise coming from Lex Consult operates.

Thus, Lex invites its customers to meet again in this event, a must for all who work as managers in IT or as users of its resources their areas of expertise within their respective organizations, between these and the Tax and Financial.

Lex Consult Tax Governance System (SGTLex) certified as Powered by SAP NetWeaver®

Provides tax safety through Tax Technology
Tax Governance solution for clients through Interoperability with SAP® Solutions

SALVADOR (BA) – October, 2011 – Lex Consult presents its version of SGTLex, Tax Governance solution, which earned an SAP certification, being integrated into the SAP NetWeaver technology platform. The solution was confirmed to be incorporated to SAP® solutions, providing a larger and more appropriate management of taxes from customers and, consequently, maximize their results since it allows the identification and quantification of risks based on tax planning and tax intelligence.

The SAP Integration and Certification Center testified the integration of  SGTLex solution with SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (SAP NetWeaver PI), which provides information technology resources for Tax Governance, in order to perform the best practices for managing the process of tax enforcement of its customers.

“We are delighted to announce the successful development of the new version of our SGTLex solution, now certified as Powered by SAP NetWeaver”, said Luciano Sousa, CEO of Lex Consult. “SGTLex’s ability to leverage the business potential of products provided by solutions from SAP and other vendors will prove highly beneficial to establish commitments to present and future customers.”

As a result of the certified integration, SGTLex now provides differentiated tax analysis, and seeks the best legal alternatives to the client’s tax planning in order to optimize the tax burden on their activity as well as providing an economy in the payment of taxes, this allows the generation of resources that fuel new investments and increase the company’s competitive advantage.

In addition, Lex Consult joined the SAP® PartnerEdge™ program as a partner of SAP software solutions. Through this program, partners work closely with SAP to develop and certify the technical integration of their solutions with SAP software. Integrated partner applications extend, complement and add value to SAP solutions, thereby helping mutual customers to successfully meet the needs of your business and generate consistent results.

SAP and Lex together

In five years, SAP (Systems, Applications and Products in the Data Processing) has jumped from the 34th to the 24th position in the ranking of the 100 best global brands by Interbrand, a company that works with international brands. It is a division of Omnicom, one of the largest publicity agencies and social holding companies in the world. Interbrand was founded by John Murphy in 1974 as Novamark. Each year, it publishes this list, which is anxiously awaited by the organizations. To be side-by-side with the German champion and to be certified by them is an inspiration and point of pride for the team and for the Lex Consult brand.

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One of the articles in this edition deals talks about organizations which work with outsourcing and tax.

The news this year is the highlight given to Lex Consult and its very specialized and unique performance in ​​the Tax Governance area. This fact is easily identified in the graph taken from this publication (p. 121). It is observed that in BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) focused on taxes, Lex has no competitors, its services are unique due to its own peculiarity.

Another important aspect that deserves to be highlighted is the chart also taken from this magazine (p. 121) which indicates that the top 10 organizations in the BPO industry. Based on this, we can realize that Lex Consult raised to the 6th position and it is the most important company in its segment, that is, it totals 70.3% of the market and still holds a very significant growth, 25 , 6%.

It should be noted that the publication mentioned still puts Lex Consult on the 62^nd position on the Top 100 companies operating in ICT and which are OSP (Outsourcing Service Providers, or providers of outsourcing services). It is worth noting that this is a general ranking and does not highlight the specific services provided by Lex, which inevitably would lead it to the first position without precedent or successor.

It is also voiced in this periodical that Lex Consult owns a business model heavily relied on extensive experience of its CEO, Luciano Sousa, and the existence of a team of consultants able to perform unique tax analysis, seeking the best legal alternatives for tax planning. Likewise, it highlights the aid givenby its own software for Tax Governance, which received support from the laboratory of Co-Innovation of SAP in order to gain new features and be able to climb in the foreign market space.

In this context, the management of these organizations naturally evolves to a new frontier: the Tax Governance, which maximizes output and provides better management of taxes, since it allows the identification and quantification of risks based on tax planning and tax intelligence.

Even though it is a fairly new area, it is a business niche that requires unique expertise. In this scenario, Lex Consult emerges, again, ahead of its area (noting that the company developed the pioneering concept of Tax Technology), to offer this new service in Brazil, using the same principles of good governance, but now focused on the management of taxes and analysis of data coming from these, always based on corporate responsibility, transparency, accessibility of information and respect to the law in force.

Nevertheless, besides acting under this aegis, Lex Consult ensures the integrity of information, provides an indication of areas for improvement in tax enforcement proceedings, allowing the management of taxes to happen properly – the customer will not even pay more, incurring loss of resources, nor less, charging in unnecessary penalties and fines – as well as it allows, if this is of interest, the monitoring of real-time management, using mobile technology to do so.

Such quality and innovation have led to a natural approach with the German giant SAP (Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing) and success was the word of order in the first certification achieved.

Lex Consult now with its Tax Governance System certified as Powered by SAP NetWeaver, waits very comfortably for the next step, because in addition to being the Tax Technology company chosen by SAP to develop solutions in tax audit in Brazil through the COIL – Co-Innovation Lab, is known to have performers and consultants with extensive experience in tax, Governance and Technology, working on developing solutions that enable the effective management of tax cases from companies such as Petrobras, Vale, Transpetro, Cosan, Walmart, BR Distribuidora, among others that make up its clientele portfolio.

Thus, Lex Consult consolidates and maintains the pace of investments in technology and organizational development in order to anticipate in responding to the demands of the Tax Technology market.

Access the virtual special section of Época Magazine:

http://www.impressaonet.com.br/projetos/postos16/index.html

See below the photos of the event: