Once again canceled, the presentation of the tax reform opinion was for the next week. Today's postponement (29) was due to the lack of a minimum quorum of deputies in the special committee that analyzes the matter. While there is no vote, the rapporteur, Deputy Andre Moura (PSC-SE), continues to negotiate with the government. He says he is open to making changes to the opinion, citing the main concern of the bodies being heard, such as the IRS: the constitutional provision for tax percentages.

The deputy confirmed that he included in the opinion the need for the Constitution to provide for a maximum percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the tax burden in the country. Moura said, however, that he will not follow exactly the suggestion of the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha, who at the end of last week defended the limit in law, indicating that the percentage may already be valid in 2016 or 2017.

“What I imagine is that it has the percentage. Not as it was said to have 30% from 2016, but in the medium term to adapt to all the new rules exactly because of the moment that crosses the country ”, he said. According to him, the percentage currently practiced is approximately 28%, with no provision in law.

Gradual application

The rapporteur also explained that everything that is being foreseen in the text has a gradual application. The purpose is to allow time for states, municipalities and the Union to adapt to the new rules without prejudice. In the case of limiting the tax burden, the idea, according to Moura, is to define the schedule “in the medium term”. The matter is under debate with the IRS and the Ministry of Finance, which met with the deputy last week and has other meetings this week.

“My report has a lot to make law, to constitutionalize. I am constitutionalizing a lot, because it prevents the possibility of changing [the limits in the future] ”, he explained.

In the opinion, there is still the suggestion of the so-called Value Added Tax (VAT), which would replace, within eight years, federal taxes such as the Social Integration Program (PIS), the Contribution to the Financing of Social Security (Cofins) and Contribution of Intervention in the Economic Domain (Cide) on fuels. “For eight years, all taxes will converge to create federal VAT in the end. You have the time to adapt. Nothing in our report has an immediate impact for 2016 or 2017 ”, he explained.

Source: EBC Agency Brazil .