The Brazilian Institute of Competition Ethics (ETCO) and the Attorney General's Office of the National Treasury (PGFN) signed a mutual cooperation agreement last September 29.

The agreement reinforces the partnership between PGFN and ETCO, aiming to combine efforts to achieve the values ​​of respect for the legal tax standard, equal treatment of tax and fair competition within the scope of federal taxes.

“This small formal record of the cooperative disposition of an OSCIP [civil society organization of public interest] comes in the sense of preserving competition, preventing some, by not paying taxes, from having advantages in the domestic market”, explains the ETCO executive president Evandro Guimarães.

According to Dr. Claudio Seefelder “the agreement reinforces and reaffirms the intention of PGFN and ETCO to advance cooperation and strengthen joint action against those who try to avoid paying the tax through anti-isonomic and anti-fair competition measures. . Highlighting that the partnership has been fruitful for a long time, since in the judicial discussion of the issue of special registration for cigarette production in Brazil, cooperation proved to be important for the success achieved by PGFN in the resources and suspensions of security in the TRF´s s, and, finally, in the STF in the judgments of AC nº 1657 / RJ and RE nº 550.769 / RJ. ”

The harmony between PGFN and ETCO, then, comes to reinforce the fight against illicit, anticompetitive and unjust conduct, which cause competitive imbalances, damage to the treasury, the market and also to society.

These actions and damages materialize, for example, in smuggling, piracy, under-invoicing, tax evasion. Still, unfair attitudes are considered both before the law and for the functioning of the internal market: the rout, the reception, the non-payment of taxes as a commercial strategy and crimes against intellectual property.

The signing of the agreement will reflect actions that will contribute to the exchange of knowledge and experiences that can be shared about practices that cause unfair and anti-isonomic treatment in the payment of taxes, competitive imbalances, damages to the treasury, the market and society, so that , with this complementation, the measures to stop these acts are more effective.

In addition, another agenda that derives from the agreement is the joint organization of lectures, seminars, training and events in general aimed at professional training and the promotion of issues related to the object of the Cooperation Agreement.

The activities will be managed by the General Coordination of Judicial Representation (CRJ) and the Center for High Studies of the PGFN (CEAE).