Merchants objected to the tax on transactions – the Observer

The operator of payments Unicre is to charge merchants a new fee on transactions made with cards, a situation that the companies dispute but that an expert says to be cool.

The Unicre sent a letter to its customers, which was this Tuesday unnoticed by the Public and that the Portuguese also had access, in which argues the decision with the "amendment to the wording of the budget 17.3.4 of the General Table of the Stamp Tax", which entered into force with the State Budget for 2016, considering that with this change to "charges relating to the operations-based cards will now be subject to Stamp duty".

The Unicre clarifies in the letter of 21 November that concluded "the technical developments required, will start collecting the tax from 01 December 2016", and includes an example of the application of this money from the Tax Stamp.

When a customer pays with a card with a purchase of 25 euros, that merchant pays a commission of 1% (0,24 euros) by the processing of the payment. This sum is now the Stamp duty at the rate of 4% (which focuses on the monetary value of the commission, namely, 0,01 eur), being the total cost to the merchant of 0.26 euros.

The business associations lament over this burden, and some dispute even the legality of the understanding of Unicre, a situation that the fiscalista of SRS Advogados José Pedroso de Melo away from it.

The Portuguese Association of Distribution Companies (APED) argues that these charges "should be borne by the banking sector, as it was set by the Government, and not to the trade and to the consumer".

To Lusa, the director-general of APED, Ana Isabel Trigo Morais, said that the association will "continue to develop efforts to ensure that there is justice in the application of these measures and that is not the trade, nor the Portuguese, and to support this tax created specifically for the banking sector".

the Association Also Restoration and Similar Portugal (AHRESP) regrets that the burden of Stamp duty is now transferred to the traders and is to "take reasonable care" to reverse the decision, as communicated by Unicre.

our businesses may not be required to pay this charge when this tax falls upon the income of the one who takes commissions. Our companies do not have a recipe, you have a cost where there are payments made with the card because they already pay a commission to the service provider to have this means of payment is available", said to Lusa the director of the department of planning of AHRESP, Pedro Carvalho.

he said that the associated companies of AHRESP are "upset with this situation" and that the association "is at this time to ascertain, by means of the expert, the legality of the effective application of this tax," but reiterates that "it is unthinkable that rubs off on those who operate daily in the economy", arguing that "has to fall on those who have revenue by having this service".

Already the president of the Confederation of Trade and Services of Portugal (CCP), João Vieira Lopes, considers that the change introduced in 2016 "is more a good example of that minor adjustments of the wording on diplomas-level tax may lead to new charges".

For the officers, "will not cause an illegality in the application of the rate, but more an example of the increase in the tax burden of the business, considering that this situation "is particularly critical because it focuses on operations (operations with cards) already very expensive and which are a result of the fees charged by banking organizations and the interbank".

Contacted by Lusa, the fiscalista of SRS Advogados José Pedroso de Melo explained that "the impact of the burden imposed on the clients is normal and allowed by the law."

it Is the law itself that determines that, in the case of the tax on financial operations carried out by credit institutions or other companies or financial institutions, the burden should fall on the customers of these", said the lawyer of the Tax Department of the company.

For José Pedroso de Melo, is "a situation similar to the tax that the customers of the banks pay when they borrow money or charged any commission".

The Ministry of Finance, for its part, declined to comment on specific cases, referring to the fact that this tax was already due in the past," and that the State Budget for 2016 "only clarified its enforceability".

The guardianship said that the Stamp duty "is payable by the entity that covers the fees related to payment transactions based on cards," and that "it will be due by the financial institutions even if they have not been passed on to traders".