Five measures for MEIs: what has moved and what is pending

An MEI (individual microentrepreneur) can earn up to R$ 81,000 a year^[1], a figure not adjusted in eight years^[7]. Since that ceiling began to apply, prices have risen more than 55%^[8].

In 2025 and 2026, 101,216 MEIs were removed from the regime for exceeding the R$ 81,000 limit and automatically moved to the Simples Nacional^[9]. Brazil has 17.6 million registered MEIs, 7.8 million of them women^[3].

PLP 186/2026, from the Executive, proposes a ceiling of R$ 110,000 in 2027 and R$ 140,000 in 2028^[5][1]. It also provides for up to two employees (today, one), paid exclusively one minimum wage or the category's wage floor^[1].

Approved by the Chamber 461 to 4, the bill goes to the Senate^[4][1]. Under the bill, the higher ceiling depends on the revenue waiver being provided for in the 2027 to 2029 budget laws^[10][9]. According to CNN Brasil, the government resisted for a time a bill raising the MEI and Simples ceilings, because the impact did not fit the budget of coming years; as that bill advanced, it sent its own proposal^[11].

Another bill on the same subject, PLP 108/2021, by senator Jayme Campos (then DEM-MT), was approved by the Senate in 2021, 71 to 0^[12]. It proposes a ceiling of R$ 130,000 and has been in the Chamber since August 2021; its urgency was approved in March 2026, but it has not yet been voted on the floor^[13]. It is not the bill approved on October 14^[4].

The bill approved by the Chamber takes in PLP 267/2026, also from the Executive: full forgiveness of MEI debts registered in the Dívida Ativa da União up to October 13, 2026. The condition is keeping payments up to date for six months after the law takes effect and dropping lawsuits^[1].

The R$ 12.6 billion is the total of the debts the government says could be forgiven^[2]. The cost is different, and smaller: the Executive estimates a budget impact of R$ 1.1 billion in 2027, R$ 1 billion in 2028 and R$ 909 million in 2029^[1].

For bank debts, the Finance Ministry added MEIs to Desenrola 3.0 by ordinance. The government will launch a call to buy these portfolios from banks, which must offer a minimum 90% discount; about R$ 6 billion in identified debts may be included^[3].

PixMEI provides for direct, non-reimbursable support of up to R$ 5,000, for items such as salon equipment or an electric delivery motorbike. The government estimates it could benefit about 1 million MEIs over four years, but says: “The program is in the design stage”^[2].

The government announced a decree waiving invoices on sales and services to individuals^[2]; CNN reported it was signed^[6]. According to a tax lawyer interviewed by Diário do Comércio, the exemption was already in the Simples Nacional rules, but the tax reform's regulations raised doubts about keeping it^[7].

Next steps to follow: the Senate vote, which decides the ceiling, employees and forgiveness; then sanction and the Desenrola call.