CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES OF MEIS IN BRAZIL: AN ACCOUNTING AND MANAGERIAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

This article examines the main challenges faced by individual microentrepreneurs (MEIs) in Brazil, focusing on accounting, financial, and administrative dimensions. The MEI framework, established by Complementary Law No. 128/2008, represents an essential public policy for productive inclusion, designed to promote the formalization of self-employed workers and small entrepreneurs who previously operated on the margins of the formal economy. This simplified legal category, integrated into the Simples Nacional tax system, seeks to combine reduced tax burdens, access to social security, and simplified business registration procedures. The regime has become a gateway to entrepreneurship, reflecting the dynamism of necessity-driven enterprises, and in 2022 recorded more than 14 million active registrations, accounting for approximately 70% of all formally registered businesses in the country. The research adopted a mixed methodological approach (qualitative and quantitative), characterized as descriptive and exploratory, and used the narrative literature review method, examining scientific and institutional publications from 2021 to 2025. Fourteen articles were selected to support the analysis of challenges. The review results were categorized into two axes: structural challenges and micro-managerial challenges. Among the structural challenges, the most notable are the actuarial imbalance of the social security system estimated at a deficit of R$ 711 billion the low payment compliance of contributors (only about 50% pay regularly), the inadequate targeting of the program, and the significant risk of “pejotização” (the misuse of legal entities to disguise employment relationships). On the micro-managerial level, the main obstacles identified include poor financial management, with most MEIs failing to separate personal and business finances violating the Entity Principle as well as the lack of professional accounting support. Another critical challenge is limited access to credit, driven by financial institutions’ high perception of risk, resulting in high interest rates and short repayment terms. As a practical intervention, the authors developed the extension project “Youth Entrepreneurship: Unveiling the MEI”, delivered through a lecture at SENAI in Porto Velho (RO) for 31 young apprentices enrolled in the Administrative Assistant course. The objective of this intervention was to disseminate knowledge on formalization, tax obligations, and essential accounting practices that support the sustainability of small businesses. The study concludes that strengthening and ensuring the sustainability of the MEI regime urgently requires regulatory reform, the implementation of supportive public policies focused on managerial training and expanded access to credit, as well as greater involvement from accounting professionals, in order to ensure equity, efficiency, and alignment with the regime’s original objectives.