Panel SA: Auditors from SP pressure deputies against project that could make inspection difficult

Sinafresp (the São Paulo Revenue inspectors union) increased pressure on deputies to question the complementary bill 17/2022, which creates the so-called “Code of Taxpayer Defense”, but is criticized by auditors as a risk of raising the evasion and money laundering.

Presented by Deputy Felipe Rigoni (União-ES), the text determines a series of prohibitions in relation to the Public Treasury, such as the use of police force in the diligences in the taxpayer’s establishment, unless with judicial authorization.

The bill, which is awaiting a vote in the plenary, also changes rules of the tax code, such as the reduction from five to three years in the statute of limitations for tax collection, as well as in the execution phase of locating the debtor’s assets.

Among the points criticized, according to Marco Chicaroni, president of Sinafresp, is the possibility of altering the tie-breaking rule for judgments of infraction notices in administrative courts.

“By the new law, if there is a tie in the collegiate decisions, the taxpayer’s thesis will always be victorious. As the groups of judges are formed by judges appointed by the Treasury and judges appointed by business entities, usually tax lawyers, in an equal number, Sinafresp sees risk of emptying notices of infraction. It aggravates the fact that decisions contrary to the Public Treasury cannot be questioned in the Judiciary, something that is allowed to taxpayers”, says the union.

Chicaroni says he also sees a risk to the collection. “In 2021, the São Paulo Treasury Department issued R$16.7 billion in tax assessments. The total stock of credits owed to the Treasury, which may also have its future affected by the bill, totals R$125.3 billion”, says the entity.

Joana Cunha with Paulo Ricardo Martins and Diego Felix