The number of employees and the annual gross revenue are the more used criteria to define the companies' size. In Brazil, the micro and small-sized companies have differentiated and simplified legal treatment in the administrative, tributary, social security, labor and credit fields, through the SIMPLES tax and the Micro and Small-Sized Company Statute.

According to the Micro and Small-Sized Company Statute, it is considered:

• micro-company, the legal entity and the mercantile company that has annual gross revenue equal or inferior to R$ 244,000.00 (two hundred and forty four thousand Reals);
• small company, the legal entity and the mercantile company that has annual gross revenue superior to R$ 244,000.00 (two hundred and forty four thousand Reals) and equal or inferior to R$ 1.200.000,00 (a million and two hundred thousand Reals).

Size	Employees
Micro-company	Commerce and services - up to 9 employees Industry - up to 19 employees
Small company	Commerce and services - 10 to 49 employees Industry - 20 to 99 employees

Size	Annual Gross Revenue
Micro-company	Up to R$ 244,000.00
Small company	Between R$ 244,000.00 and R$ 1.200.000,00

Classification per Number of Employees*	Number of Companies
	2001	2002
Micro (0 to 19)	1,230	1,912
Small (20 to 99)	902	989