This paper aims to analyze the effect of a special regime of taxes, the Regime de Estimativa used on the tax on services (ISS) charged by the municipalities in Brazil. The first section analyzes the importance for municipalities to have their own tax system after the Federal Constitution (1988) and the Lei de Responsabilidade Fiscal (Fiscal Responsibility Law) (2000). In the second section the service sector is discussed and the role of the regime de estimativas as a way of simplification in the tax system. The third section presents three case studies. The first and the second case address how this regime can help the municipalities. The third case emphasizes that the simplification is an instrument to improve the tax system rather than a panacea. In the forth section some legal and public finance aspects regarding the ISS are discussed. Finaly some conclusions are drawn.
public finance; service sector; administrative simplicity
