Those who work for themselves or have a small business can now regularize their work situation and issue notes through the MEI (Individual Microentrepreneur).

In addition, those who are MEI and pay their taxes on time can contribute to the INSS (National Social Security Institute) and retire through social security in the future.

The MEI is a simple business modality that the Federal Government launched to regularize the condition of self-employed workers and also of small entrepreneurs. In this way, since 2009 the modality has been taking millions of people out of informality and giving them the opportunity to guarantee their basic work rights.

When a self-employed worker or small entrepreneur becomes a MEI, he enters the CNPJ (National Register of Legal Entities) in Brazil. From this, the new entrepreneur or service provider can regularize his work, issue invoices and have access to social security benefits, as mentioned above. 

With the formal job market becoming less and less attractive, because in addition to a lack of vacancies, wages are unfair most of the time, entrepreneurship grows more and more. In this sense, the number of public companies, especially the MEI, is increasing. 

By 2020, Brazil had around 3.3 million publicly traded companies and of these, more than 2 million were individual micro-entrepreneurs. This total showed an increase of 8.4% in the number of companies opened in 2019, totaling 11.3 million MEIs at the end of 2020.

In addition, the arrival of the pandemic was an even bigger shock for the job market and many people saw the way out in entrepreneurship and today the country has more than 14 million MEI. So check out how MEI works!

The Federal Government created the mei through Complementary Law nº 128/2008 and came into force in 2009. Since then, those who are micro-entrepreneurs manage to have a good part of the benefits of larger companies, even if they do not have the same annual revenue.

By choosing to enter the MEI list, you will have the CNPJ and respond as a legal entity to the market. In this sense, these people enter the simple national taxation regime. Therefore, this is a simpler tax regime and this helps those who do not understand the business market very well.

In the national simple, who is MEI pays a fixed amount each month through the DAS (Simples National Collection Document), a slip in the approximate amount of R$60. Thus, we are exempt from taxes such as Income Tax, PIS, Cofins, IPI and CSLL.

In short, being a micro-entrepreneur is highly advantageous, but not everyone can meet the requirements to become formal in this way. This happens because the law establishes some conditions for opening the CNPJ, they are:

Now connect with other points that may veto your right to open a MEI:

It is important to remember that anyone who is a CLT (Consolidation of Labor Laws) worker has the right to open the MEI to carry out other activities and guarantee extra money. The professionals mentioned above are also entitled to this class of entrepreneurship, as long as their company is in another area.

Contrary to what many people think, opening the CNPJ in this category is completely free if you choose to open it on the Gov.br platform, through the entrepreneur's portal. Thus, it is not necessary to pay anything to open your MEI and formalize your services on the market.

However, it is possible to find several companies that facilitate both the opening process, such as the payments of the DAS Guides, the Annual declaration and other things. These companies usually charge subscription packages or a specific amount for each process, ranging from R$50 to R$100.

In short, we already said that not all people or businesses can enter this special category because it is a simpler class. So, one of these limitations is the annual revenue, which should be R$81 thousand.

By dividing this total by the months of the year, we come to the conclusion that your business or service provision must yield a maximum of R$6750 to qualify as MEI. However, if the monthly payment is higher, it is necessary to resort to another business category.

First, the MEI is available to most people, with the exception of retirees, pensioners, civil servants and professions regulated by class bodies. Therefore, a doctor, for example, cannot open a MEI to exercise his role as a doctor. However, it is possible to open the register if he is going to carry out another activity.

This same concept serves professionals such as architects, psychologists, lawyers, economists and other categories.

According to Federal Revenue data, the category has more than 450 activities dedicated to the self-employed and also small companies in general. Anyway, the most common activities for an individual microentrepreneur are:

Remembering that these are the main categories, that is, the ones that most attract the entrepreneur public and service provider in general. In that sense, nothing prevents you from opening a MEI with another type of activity in mind. Then check out how to open a MEI through our new recommended content!