Panel SA: Pressure grows against Carf in Haddad’s package

Pressure from business representatives should grow in the coming days against the return of the casting vote in CARF (Administrative Council of Tax Appeals), a measure that was announced in the economic package of the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, last week.

The return of the mechanism, which was extinguished in 2020 and serves as a tiebreaker in cases of tax disagreement between Revenue and taxpayers, displeased businessmen.

This Wednesday (18), FecomercioSP sends a manifestation to the Ministry of Finance and the Civil House with its criticism of the measure. In the entity’s assessment, the change should not boost federal revenue, but rather increase judicialization.

FecomercioSP also complains about the expansion of the power given to regional police stations to judge cases of greater value. With the change, they will be able to analyze processes involving up to a thousand minimum wages — today, the cut is up to 60 floors.

According to the entity, the expansion hurts tax equality and obliges taxpayers to resort to the Judiciary, which mainly harms smaller companies with few resources.

When he announced the measure, Haddad defended that the end of the casting vote caused damage to the Union in the region of R$ 60 billion per year. He claims that this will be a way to reduce pending tax disputes at Carf.

OAB São Paulo also questions the return of the casting vote. He says it is unconstitutional and that the Lula government did not bring the matter up for debate with society before reactivating it last week.

Roberto Quiroga, president of the special commission on tax law at the OAB-SP, says that the intention to reduce litigation will have a reverse effect. The organization considers the issue a “setback” and will send a letter to the government asking for a meeting to discuss the matter.

Last week, when he announced the economic package, Haddad said that the stock of processes at Carf exceeded R$ 1 trillion. To turn this money locked up by legal issues into assets, the government created a debt refinancing program and reactivated the casting vote.

For OAB São Paulo, attributing the problem of increasing the stock of cases to the taxpayer is wrong. In addition to the pandemic, which suspended the analysis of processes, the strikes of tax auditors also contributed to the accumulation of cases, says the OAB.

“There was no conversation between the government and the legal community, with companies and taxpayers, only with the Revenue. We are asking for a hearing so that he can hear the taxpayer’s side,” said Quiroga.

Organizations and associations of São Paulo law, such as the IASP (Institute of Lawyers of SP), will also sign the document.

Last week, the group of businessmen Esfera Brasil appealed to the presidents of the Chamber and Senate, Arthur Lira and Rodrigo Pacheco, to block the measure in Congress.

Abrasca (an association of public companies that brings together names like Ambev, Americanas, Cosan and Petrobras) also complained.

Joana Cunha with Paulo Ricardo Martins and Diego Felix