We all know, only too well, that almost every tourist destination in this country has 3 separate price tables; one for locals, another for Brazilian tourists, and yet another for foreign tourists. It's so bad in some cities where I've lived you actually have to carry around a utility bill to prove you live there or you get charged the "gringo" prices. I simply refuse to do business with anyone who exploits tourists and, in fact, this was one of the main reasons I moved away from Porto Seguro - BA where the practice was rampant.
I thought Porto Seguro was bad, but the city has absolutely nothing on Bombinhas - SC. Last year the City of Bombinhas imposed a R$21,83 tax on tourists, which was supposed to be directed to environmental improvements. Recently they "rounded down" to R$21,50 supposedly to "facilitate" payment. They just don't seem to understand why half of the tourists have simply refused to pay the tax. Maybe, just maybe tourists are just fed up with being exploited. Public officials just don't get the fact that tourists bring big bucks into the local economy and anything that's going to inhibit tourism is going to have a negative impact on the local economy. Any kind of exploitation, and especially a tax that they don't see being applied appears to be nothing but exploitation.
Of the R$7.5 million that was supposed to be collected only R$3.9 million was actually paid. Now comes the fun part... of the R$3.9 million the city received, they paid out R$2 million to the company that installed the high-tech system that has cameras to capture license plate numbers and apply the tax. A further R$60 thousand was paid out in bank fees involved in collecting the tax. That left R$1.6 million going into the publc purse, of which R$568,444 was spent on 6 months rental of 60 portable toilets that were placed on the local beaches. Those toilets have since been removed and nothing else has been spent on other improvements.
Now as if all of the foregoing wasn't bad enough, the city proposes to add the name of all those who don't pay the tax to the SERASA/SPC bad credit list. So how do you avoid the tax or having it not affect your credit history?
Simple! STAY AWAY FROM BOMBINHAS, Santa Catarina.
Source: G1 Globo website: http://g1.globo.com/sc/santa-catarina/n … as-sc.html
Cheers,
James Expat-blog Experts Team
Bombinhas - SC stay away if you don't agree with exploiting tourists
Florianópolis - SC is also looking at imposing a similar tax, and it's quite likely that it will happen. Just another place off the list of my future travel plans.
Cheers,
James Expat-blog Experts Team
I love Floripa but I will stop going there if they do this !!!!!!!!!!! 
What happens if a tourist doesn't pay the tax? 
Right now, I don't know what happens to those who don't pay. I would assume that if they're caught while in Bombinhas then they can be fined. I don't know the municipal legislation which is in force.
However, if they carry through on their plans to add non-payers to SERASA/SPC then non-payers will suffer all the usual consequences, not be able to open a bank account, not be obtain credit or pay on installments, not be able to arrange for certain ultilities, etc. and that will remain on their CPF for 5 years.
Cheers,
James Expat-blog Experts Team
Very complex and stupid way to implement a tourism tax. It should be much easier to implement this tax on the professional side: hotel/pousada could pay a tax by room/day rent.
For away from Brazil, in Paris, they did that and it works well; they even succeed to force Airbnb (Uber taxi of the tourism) to pay Paris city 1 Euro tax per day. Zero cost for the collectivity.
The question we should always ask ourselves in Brazil : who benefits of it? Certainly the contractor and managers in local authorities who received back charges.
To be absolutely honest, this whole thing looks like a way to scam more money. Obviously there are lots more ways to collect such a tax rather than this multi-million Real scheme. Somebody is getting very fat of this whole deal, the money is going out and nothing exists to show for it. What does that tell you? Like everything else in Brazil there is corruption from top to bottom.
Is the state of Santa Caterina the only state doing this and how about a list of the places that do so tourists can be informed of which places do not want them.
Virtually every tourist destination in Brazil exploits tourists by having 3 separate price lists (resident, national tourist and foreign tourist).
Bombinhas - SC however, is the only one I have ever heard of that charges a TAX on tourists and goes to such extremes to collect it. They use traffic cameras to enforce the tax, and have indicated that they will include the names and CPF of non-payers on the credit reporting agencies SPC and SERASA.
Cheers,
James
expat.com Experts Team
Traffic cameras? This seems extreme. 
Are tousists a problem?
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