“Tax Reform Provides for Extra Tax on Alcoholic Beverages”
Diário do Grande ABC reports:
“Bars, restaurants and food-service establishments need to prepare for a change that comes with the tax reform: from 2027, alcoholic and sugary beverages will be taxed by the Selective Tax (IS), created to impose levies on products considered harmful to health and the environment. The direct impact should be felt both in pricing and in the sector’s profit margins.
“The warning comes from tax consultant Bianca Souza, of ACOM Sistemas. She explains that the IS is a single-stage tax and does not generate tax credits, unlike the IBS and CBS, the other two taxes created by the reform. In practice, this means that products subject to the tax tend to accumulate a higher cost along the production chain.”
Other Articles on Same Topic
- The “Sin Tax” and the New Business Logic in Brazil (Diário do Norte)
Assessment
These articles reflect a growing volume of media coverage about Brazil’s forthcoming Selective Tax (Imposto Seletivo) on alcohol. But the framing deserves close attention:
- Both pieces centre the perspective of businesses and tax consultants, emphasising compliance burdens, price uncertainty, and operational complexity.
- The Diário do Norte column goes further, characterising the tax as an example of excessive state intervention.
Absent from either article is any mention of the public health benefits: the approximately 12 alcohol deaths per hour in Brazil, the R$18.8 billion annual cost of alcohol harm to the health system, or the evidence that pro-health taxes are among the most cost-effective tools to prevent and reduce alcohol harm.
The timing matters. The Selective Tax rates for alcohol have not yet been defined – they will be set by ordinary law, with the bill expected to be submitted to Congress imminently. By saturating the media discourse with concern about costs before rates are even announced, a narrative environment is being constructed that favours the lowest possible rates – precisely the outcome sought by Ambev (owned by AB InBev), Heineken, and their lobby groups SINDICERV and ABBD.
This coverage pattern underscores the need for proactive media engagement as the rate-setting bill approaches Congress. This moment is an opportunity to ensure the public discourse reflects what these articles omit: the reality that people are concerned about alcohol harm and support raising alcohol taxes, the magnitude of alcohol harm in Brazil, the evidence that well-designed alcohol taxes save lives and generate revenue for the common good, and the fact that the alcohol industry’s concern is only about protecting their private profit margins.