2026 MEI limit for online sellers: R$ 81 mil, the 20% rule, and what to do before you exceed it

The MEI limit in 2026 remains R$ 81 mil per year, or R$ 6.750 per month in the year you register. If you exceed it by up to 20% (up to R$ 97.200 for a full year), your MEI status only ends on January 1 of the following year, and you pay the tax difference in a single installment, with no additional charges. If you exceed it by more than 20%, your MEI status ends retroactively on January 1 of the year you exceeded the limit. For online sellers, R$ 81 mil works out to about 135 orders of R$ 50 per month—a volume a successful store can reach quickly.

The bill to raise the limit to R$ 130 mil has passed the Senate, but as of October 2026, it had not been voted on by the full Chamber of Deputies. Plan around the limit currently in the law.

#MEI figures for 2026

The INSS portion of the DAS is 5% of the minimum wage (R$ 1.621 in 2026); ICMS adds R$ 1 for those who are taxpayers, and ISS adds R$ 5.

#What counts toward the limit

Gross revenue: the value of your sales. For marketplace sellers, this means the price paid by the buyer, not the amount Mercado Livre or Shopee transfers after fees. If you sold R$ 100 and received R$ 73, the amount that counts is R$ 100.

This is the most common mistake people make when they think they’re still far from the limit: they check their marketplace statement, which shows the net amount, and underestimate revenue by 25% to 35%.

#The year you open: the prorated limit

In the year you register as a MEI, the limit is R$ 6.750 multiplied by the number of months from the start of operations through the end of the year. Any part of a month counts as a full month. A MEI registered on August 20 has 5 months (August through December) and a limit of R$ 33.750 for that year.

Those who register as a MEI in the second half of the year and start selling well in November and December, during Black Friday and Christmas, can easily exceed this limit.

#Over the limit: the two scenarios

Up to 20% over the limit. You remain a MEI through the end of the year and are reclassified on January 1 of the following year. The additional tax on the excess is paid in a single installment, with no added charges, along with the January tax filing.

More than 20% over the limit. The reclassification is retroactive to January 1 of the year you exceeded the limit (or to the start of operations if it was the year you registered). From then on, the business owes taxes as a microenterprise.

In both cases, you must report exceeding the limit by the last business day of the following month. If you don’t, you’ll be reclassified automatically.

#The numbers: when it pays to switch to Simples

The MEI DAS is a fixed amount, so while you’re within the limit, it’s hard to beat: R$ 82,05 per month is 1,2% of R$ 6.750 in revenue.

Under Simples Nacional, Annex I (commerce), the effective tax rate starts at 4% for businesses with revenue of up to R$ 180 mil over 12 months. For a store with annual revenue of R$ 120 mil:

The difference is significant, but there’s no choice: above the limit, MEI is no longer an option. What you can choose is when to switch. Planning the switch for January costs much less than finding out in December that you exceeded the limit by 30% and having to recalculate the entire year. The Simples tax rate also rises as your store grows; I explain the rate tiers in the tax that goes up on its own.

In practice. A couple selling pet accessories registered as a MEI in March. Since it was the year they registered, their limit wasn’t R$ 81 mil, but R$ 67.500 (10 months), with a 20% tolerance up to R$ 81 mil. They checked their marketplace payouts and thought they were well below the limit. In October, when they added up their sales, the total was already over R$ 70 mil, and their Black Friday projection put them at around R$ 105 mil, well above the tolerance. If they kept selling, retroactive reclassification was inevitable. With their accountant, they moved up the switch and recalculated their prices using the Simples tax rate before Black Friday, instead of discovering the tax difference in January.

#What to do when you’re close to the limit

1. Track revenue based on sales, adding up all marketplaces and channels.
2. Project your year-end total based on peak sales periods, not your average during slower months.
3. Talk to your accountant once you pass R$ 60 mil in revenue for the year to decide when to switch.
4. Update your margin to account for the new tax. Once you leave MEI, tax becomes a percentage of each sale, so prices calculated using the fixed DAS are outdated. Find the formula that includes tax in the selling price formula.

#Revenue and margin in one place

The marketplace revenue shown on your statement is net of fees, which can throw off your calculations when tracking the limit. Milewa adds up the gross sales from all your Mercado Livre and Shopee stores, month by month, and applies your tax rate to each order. When it’s time to leave MEI, you can already see how the new tax affects each product’s margin.