Cultural workers warn about a problem with the computer when issuing invoices-receipts

PlataformaDança – The National Dance Association warned on Monday that “thousands” of cultural workers could not issue receipts due to a computer error from the tax office (AT), and have already asked the government for clarification.

“Thousands of cultural figures cannot bill for their work due to the unpreparedness of the government. This means that they cannot receive income related to their work in September,” PlataformaDança said in a statement.

To Lusa, a source on the board of Plateia, the Association of Performing Arts Professionals, also confirmed that cultural workers cannot issue receipts from Friday, September 30th.

According to PlataformaDança, whenever an independent worker tries to issue a “green receipt”, they receive an error message: “Issuance of documents for cultural professionals under Decree-Law No. 2, please try again later.”

This “serious computer problem” in the AT system, emphasizes PlataformaDança, is associated with the entry into force on October 1 of the new contribution rates in accordance with the Charter of Cultural Workers.

“The self-employed started paying a Social Security contribution rate of 25.2% and contractors 5.1%. A related innovation will be that when contractors arrange accounting, premium rates will be deducted directly from invoices. – a receipt that eases the bureaucratic aspect for independent workers,” explains PerformaDança.

For the association, the situation is “unacceptable given that the government had nine months to prepare”.

The Statute of Cultural Professionals is a legal regime that came into force on 1 January that covers professionals in the performing, audiovisual, visual arts, creative writing, and cultural mediation fields, and is divided into three areas: employee registration; conclusion of employment contracts; a regime of contributions and social support, namely access to a subsidy in the event of a “forced suspension of cultural activities”.

Last week, even before the implementation of the axis concerning the funded regime, a decree-law amending the statute came into force; which Minister of Culture Pedro Adão e Silva called “surgical”.

He told reporters that the change was “with the mechanism for communicating agreements, which no longer exists at the time of signing the agreement, but becomes quarterly. This is a variation correction that was in percentage and should be in percentage points.”

The amended Decree-Law states that the implementation of the statute “revealed the need to simplify and correct certain decisions.”

“In particular with regard to the communication model for the conclusion of service contracts, the regime to be applied with regard to ensuring social inclusion, as well as the form of participation of the self-employed. With regard to this last aspect, the goal is as follows. clarify the conditions for calculating the insurance base in relation to the Special Fund for the Social Security of Cultural Workers,” the document says.

According to several organizations in the sector that Lusa contacted on September 23, the most questioned change concerned Article 30, paragraph 2 of which now reads: “The legal entity beneficiary of the provision that organized or was to organize the accounts communicates with [Inspeção-Geral das Atividades Culturais, IGAC]on conditions to be regulated by a decree of the members of the Government responsible for the areas of finance, culture, labor and social security, the conclusion of a contract for the provision of services.

The previous wording was as follows: “A person using the service who has organized or should have organized accounting must notify IGAC and the Tax and Customs Authority (AT) using a single electronic form defined by the decision of the members of the Government. responsibility for the areas of finance, culture and social security, the conclusion of a contract for the provision of services before the start of its production, which fundamentally refutes the presumption of the existence of an employment contract, provided for in Article 7.