Source: Legal Consultant - São Paulo / SP - 11/10/2010

In Brazil, a company that does not do business with other states in the country must strictly comply with at least 3,4 tax rules. This is approximately equivalent to following 38,4 articles or 89,5 paragraphs. Or: 286,2 thousand items. The country's companies, together, spend around R $ 42 billion a year on personnel and equipment to keep up with changes in tax legislation. The data can be found in the study Quantity of Norms Edited in Brazil: 22 years of the Federal Constitution of 1988, made by the Brazilian Institute of Tax Planning (IBPT).

The IBPT study has been carried out year after year, since the current Federal Constitution completed 15 years of existence. According to tax expert Gilberto Luiz do Amaral, one of the coordinators of the research, the hyper offer of standards creates legal uncertainty. “The abundance of legislation”, he explains, “creates insecurity in the citizen. This becomes notorious when you ask anyone if they know all the traffic laws or the rules that govern the issuance of a document ”.

In 22 years, Brazilian citizens have witnessed the issue of almost 4,2 million standards. These are determinations that regulate traffic and daily life in the condominium, for example. However, 6% of this amount relates exclusively to tax matters. In this field alone, the number of new standards is close to 250 thousand. The result is an alphabet soup. In just over two decades, taxes such as CPMF, Cofins, Cides, CIP and CSLL were created - not to mention other import taxes, such as PIS, Cofins and ISS.

Brazil currently has 62 taxes. The path to written law, however, is arduous. Of every 100 laws arising from Executive acts, 30 go through some kind of questioning in the Judiciary. “Brazil has a habit of modifying taxes. This tradition dates back to when the country was still a colony of Portugal ”, he explains. In 22 years, Brazil has had 22 tax reforms.

According to the report, Brazil has been gaining 22 tax rules per business day for 5,91 years. Most editions are concentrated in the municipalities, which hold 55% of them, or just over 137 thousand. Next come the states, with 83,5, or 33,5%. Finally, federal tax rules, which represent 11,5% of the total, or 28,5 thousand editions.

For Luiz do Amaral, the constant editions of rules do not take into account whether ordinary people are aware of this information. "There is no political interest", he says, "in facilitating access to the tax field, since it presupposes profit". Currently, more than 206,73 thousand articles, 481,68 paragraphs and 1,54 million items are in effect.

The director of the Brazilian Association of Financial Law (ABDF), Ana Claudia Utumi, is of the same opinion. She said the tax system is complex and involves a number of different taxes and unknown terms. “There are taxes from the Union, the states and the municipalities. The way in which legislation is structured is complicated. There are many gaps and lack of objectivity. That is why we have so many rules to regulate this system. ”

Paying Taxes 2008 - The Global Picture, a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the World Bank, shows that legislative immensity is often harmful. According to The survey, Brazil is the country that takes the longest to comply with tax obligations. The 2010 report pointed out that Brazil, among 183 countries, is the place where companies spend the most time to pay taxes: 2,6 hours per year. In India, an average of 271 hours is spent.

The constant publication of standards is a two-way street, believes lawyer Luiz Roberto Domingo, a member of the Administrative Council for Tax Appeals (Carf). “This, on the one hand, complicates the life of the lawyer, as he must always be updated, but on the other hand, it makes the tax attorney more flexible. We are already used to it. ”

It is the Complementary Law 95, of February 26, 1998, which establishes rules for the elaboration, writing, alteration and consolidation of federal legislation. According to him, the law has not been complied with.

The lawyer and professor at the University of São Paulo, Roberto Quiroga Mosquera, said that tax law has always generated a lot of legislation. “The financial market, for example, has flexible activities and many changes. So, it's easy to understand why we have so many standards. ” He pointed out, however, that what should be considered is not the quantity of standards, but the quality of them. “The government has been producing quality fiscal standards, such as the transfer pricing law and the sub-capitalization law.”

With that, agrees Luiz do Amaral. “There is no need to carry out a tax reform, as many say. We do need more rationalization to edit the rules, ”he explains. "A tip for deputies and senators: it is up to the National Congress not only to propose laws, but also to organize the national legislative system, so that the population can know and understand their rights and obligations."

Paulo de Barros Carvalho, president of the Brazilian Institute of Tax Studies (Ibet), is also in favor of rationalization. According to him, an effort can be made to simplify what already exists and to eliminate what is excess. “This effort can be carried out within the states themselves”, he explains, “because they have autonomy of action. You don't have to wait for the other one to do it ”. However, the tax official explains that he considers the constant editing of fruits as a natural process of society. “It is a natural process. The legislation needs to accompany the hypercomplexity of society's relationships. ”
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