Jorge Rachid

Rachid helped develop and implement Brazil's SPED programme, formalised in 2007, bringing electronic invoicing and digital accounting records into a common administrative framework. Standardised records made information easier for tax authorities to compare and reduced reliance on separate paper documents. The system required cooperation across tax administrations and businesses. Its value should be judged alongside firms' software, training and compliance costs, rather than assuming that a digital obligation is automatically a lighter one.