Source: DCI - SP - OPINION - 23/07/2009

Since the 80s, we have been in a warlike state of mind between governments and taxpayers, where each one fights for their fair share. Brazil has since become a veritable stage of war involving unprecedented tax disputes worldwide. We need to cool down the momentum and seek a relative peace for the good of all, but this objective is unattainable if sincere dialogue between taxpayers and governments is not installed.

As in an infinite moto-continuous, in the trenches planted on the battlefield, on the one hand, governments claiming that the deep fiscal wedge is due to the high level of tax evasion and collection requirements, and on the other hand, taxpayers that mitigate tax evasion. and they endorse tax disputes precisely because of the high tax burden. There is a bit of folly on both sides.

The trigger for this war occurred in the 80s, when governments lost inflationary taxes, their most important source of revenue at the time, along with a slow tax reform that privileged the federal tax collection set in motion by the 1988 Constitution to the detriment of the States and Municipalities.

To make matters worse, nothing has been done to stop the voracious revenue caused by the expansion of state social responsibilities and the expansion of privileges to civil servants, aligned with the low level of efficiency and governmental responsibility that drains scarce public resources.

These factors combined led to the historic departure that incompetent rulers take in the face of this scenario: a brutal increase in the fiscal wedge. We went from 23% in 1988 to 29% in 1990, holding back 24% in 1991 with the end of the Collor Plan, following a continuous escalation from 1995, to 33% in 2000, reaching the top (we hope) in 36% of GDP in 2008.

As there was no room for a new mining conflict, the taxpayers' reaction could not be different: the fierce litigation. Whether simply not paying taxes or contesting them in the Courts, or adopting non-recommended practices, taxpayers protested as they could and did not stand inert, such as tame sheep, as our noble tax collectors would like.

The consequences of this pending lie exposed in the open: the gigantic tax liability, an endless number of judicial and administrative proceedings, the various problems that tax debts bring, the loss of international competitiveness of Brazilian companies and the discouragement of productive foreign capital, still than in the heights of the world boom.

This vast tax liability, a veritable leviathan that is close to the national GDP, is not only the result of the alleged ill will of the taxpayers, governments also have their share of responsibility. The poor performance in debt collection and the persistent lack of organization of the tax administration serve to discourage the payment of taxes, as well as the reluctance to demand taxes above the capacity that society can / must bear, ignoring the economic theory advocated by the “Curve de Lafer ”.

Hence this whole problem will flow into the shoulders of the Judiciary, either to demand the office or to judge whether the taxes are actually due. Even with the recent procedural changes aimed at speeding up the lawsuits, the current stock of tax lawsuits in the storerooms in the Courts will be enough for another decade to be lost by the Judiciary.

In this regard, many taxpayers are equally at fault in treating tax theses as "commodities" and the Judiciary as a means of conveying their interests, perhaps instigated by a small troop of lawyers unprepared for more sensible crusades. And, due to the elapsed time and the casualties, we could even compare this dispute to the Thirty Years War that devastated Europe in the 17th century, bringing harm and sowing general discord, without any sign of a Westphalian Pact to end the conflict. Now, tax disputes between governments and taxpayers have always existed and will always exist, but it is imperative that they take place at civilized levels so that they do not do a real disservice to the country.

It is therefore necessary that we seek peace through frank dialogue between governments and society so that we reach a consensus between what is acceptable in terms of the tax burden balanced by state efficiency in the rationality of spending and the real return to the taxpayer.

Unlike the pax romana that was brutally imposed by the war, the pax tributária in Brazil must be built in a harmonious way between society and its governments, in order to mitigate this excessive conflict that in no way collaborates with the nation.