Source: Folha de S. Paulo - 30/06/2010

Expert says excessive standards create "parasitism" on the part of lawyers in the area to follow changes

With the highest tax burden among the emerging countries, Brazil imposes an estimated annual cost of R $ 20 billion on the private sector to deal with the bureaucracy related to the collection of taxes, fees and contributions.

In addition to consuming the equivalent of about 35% of GDP in taxes, the three spheres of government issued more than 240 thousand different tax rules in 20 years, according to the IBPT.

This forces companies to keep dozens of employees focused exclusively on meeting the requirements of the State and following changes. In the average of these 20 years, 34 changes were edited per day.

"What ends up happening is a parasitism of ours, of the lawyers, to take advantage of this confusion", says Carlos Sundfeld, of Direito GV.
According to him, one of the emblematic examples of the “tax asylum” is the history of the last years of the 8.666 law, of 1993, known as the Bidding Law.
It is through it that thousands of contracts are closed between the private sector and the public sector.

“A series of small changes, instead of a new reformulation, ended up generating more uncertainty and confusion”, says Sundfeld. He characterizes 8.666 today as "a formal disaster".

Antonio do Amaral, from OAB, says that the costs and risks related to taxation make “legal insecurity” the “dominant tone” among companies.
"A tax that is not contemplated can result, in the limit, in fines that make the company unfeasible", he says.

For João Eloi Olenike, president of IBPT, it is not just the disagreement between the Union, States and municipalities that prevents tax reform to simplify tax collection.
"The government does not want to touch this, because the truth is that it collects everything it needs," says Olenike.

For Sundfeld, with regard to collection, the system “is extremely efficient”. “The problem is that we were unable to simplify and simplify. That's what we're talking about."

(FERNANDO CANZIAN)