Glossário · NCM
NCM (Mercosur tariff code)
NCM is the eight-digit code that classifies goods for tax purposes in Mercosur. It determines the tax rate, tax benefits and reporting obligations — and it depends on what the goods are, not on how they were described. A wrong classification produces wrong tax, in both directions.
In practice
What this changes in your master data
It depends on attributes, not prose
Composition, application and form decide the code. A description without attributes forces the classifier to infer.
Errors cost both ways
Too high a rate is money left on the table; too low is a liability. Both surface only in an inspection or audit.
Questions
Frequently asked questions about this term
In practice the NCM is chosen by whoever registers the material, often from a vague description. That is where description standardization stops being a purchasing matter and becomes a tax matter: without the technical characteristic, classification is done by analogy.
Goods classification remains the axis of tax treatment, and the transition requires correct registration to calculate the new taxes. [VERIFICAR: specific effects of the reform on NCM, with official source and date]
The tax area decides; registration supplies the technical characteristic. When registration does not supply it, the tax area decides with less information than it needs.
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Related terms
Material Description Standardization · Material taxonomy · Master data