Author: Vinícius Segalla

Source: O Globo, 18/11/2008

SAO PAULO. Tax and labor reforms are essential steps to bring Brazil in line with the most dynamic and competitive economies in terms of promoting entrepreneurship.

And the progress in these two reforms becomes even more urgent in the face of the international crisis scenario, yesterday defended the participants of the opening seminar of the Global Entrepreneurship Week in Brazil, an event that takes place in more than 78 countries worldwide. Promoted by the Instituto Empreender Endeavor, the event will bring together, until the next 23rd, economists, tax experts and businessmen at the Hilton Hotel, in São Paulo.

The congress is also part of the national “Boot to do” campaign, which runs until the end of the year and aims to “awaken the entrepreneurial attitude within each person”. According to the endeavor general director, Paulo Antunes Veras, the entrepreneurship week was born in 2004, in London, and was created by the now British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, at the time Minister of Finance.

- He thought that the English economy was becoming too financial, so he wanted to boost the real economy, encouraging enterprises in the productive area - said Veras.

In order to remove obstacles that make life difficult for those who try to open their own business in Brazil, right at the opening panel of the seminar, yesterday, sociologist José Pastore and lawyer Luiz Robortella joined in favor of a labor reform that dishonored the payroll payment of companies and allows the outsourcing of activities to occur in a more free and productive way for companies.

- While history accelerates its pace, in line with the technological revolution, Brazilian labor legislation moves at a turtle pace. CLT is from the pre-computer era - said Pastore, referring to the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT).

Robortella was in the same vein, and added: - CLT has a collectivist view, treating all workers as if they were living the same reality. When the unequal is also treated, inequalities are created.

In the crisis, it's time for reforms, says Ives Gandra

In the panel “Freedom to undertake with legal certainty”, tax attorney Ives Gandra Martins and former Federal Revenue Secretary Everaldo Maciel criticized the tax reform project that is being discussed in Congress: - The Constitution has 260 articles, paragraphs, items and paragraphs dealing with taxes. The proposed reform increases that number to 368. It is a normative “cest” that works as an invitation for the entrepreneur to give up before even starting - criticized Maciel.
Martins pointed out that the international financial crisis can serve as a catalyst for reforms: - It is time for the government to use tax, labor and monetary instruments to contain the crisis and facilitate entrepreneurship.
There will be unemployment, bankruptcies. Reforms have never been more necessary.

"It is time for the government to use tax and labor instruments to contain the crisis and facilitate entrepreneurship"
Ives Gandra Martins, tax specialist