Evangelical bench sees persecution for analysis in Revenue – 04/12/2023 – Power

Leaders of the evangelical bench in Congress claim that the reassessment of the tax benefit granted during the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) management to the segment represents a political persecution by the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government.

Largely formed by members of Bolsonaro’s PL, the bench promises to resist any changes in the interpretation of the Tax Authorities.

“We’ve had meetings with the Revenue since the Michel Temer government [2016-2018] and, later, during the government of President Bolsonaro. We had a series of requests, the Revenue gradually understood what had happened and reached the point where we were able to solve 70% of the problems”, says deputy Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ), who presided over the evangelical front until February of this year.

“We are clear that the Revenue during the PT governments was used through normative instructions to persecute the religious segment”, he says.

As shown to Sheetthe tax exemption for evangelical pastors published by the Revenue on the eve of the 2022 election campaign is undergoing internal reassessment by the Tax Authorities, under suspicion of having occurred in an atypical way.

ADI (Interpretative Declaratory Act) No. 1, of July 29, 2022, extended the scope of the social security exemption to pastors —a strong core of support for Bolsonaro, then a candidate for reelection— and is also under investigation by the TCU (Tribunal de Contas da Unity).

One of the points detected, according to those involved in the analysis, is that the edition of the act did not pass through the technical evaluation of the undersecretary of taxation of the Revenue.

The act, which deals with the prebend —a fixed amount received by pastors and religious leaders, in general for their subsistence—, was the final chapter of a long list of projects approved by Congress under pressure from the evangelical bench that resulted in amnesty and exemption for churches evangelicals.

The law exempts the prebend from the collection, by churches, of social security contributions, provided that it is related to religious activity and is not linked to some type of productivity.

The Revenue, however, detected in recent years that some churches adopted a system similar to that of profit sharing in private companies. That is, the distribution of large sums of money that rewarded pastors and religious leaders of temples with greater collection of tithes.

Despite acknowledging Bolsonaro’s contribution, Sóstenes says he considers the claim that the former president was responsible for measures in favor of the evangelical bench to be unfair due to the veto he applied in 2020 to an article that approved an amnesty for religious people. Bolsonaro himself, however, encouraged Congress to override his veto.

“He didn’t solve it, we [Congresso] is that we solve for ourselves. He even contributed, helped the meetings, put Paulo Gudes [ministro da Economia] and the Revenue Secretary in meetings with us, in his office, in the Presidency, but when he had to sanction our law, he vetoed it [parcialmente]. He has no legal responsibility for that.”

The current president of the evangelical front, deputy Eli Borges (PL-TO), says he agrees with a possible reassessment of the Revenue act, provided that it is to make it clearer in the sense of exemption for the exercise of the priesthood.

“We cannot lose the achievements, we want to expand them. The church does relevant work for Brazilian society practically at zero cost. Pastors provide relevant service to society, with priestly donation, and need to be respected in this tax issue. Naturally there is the personal issue of each one. Then, outside the priesthood, we understand that the law has to reach everyone”, he says.

Deputy Pastor Marco Feliciano (PL-SP) claims to consider the publication of the 2022 Revenue a perfect legal act, which is only revised now for political reasons.

“Magnifying glasses are used to look into everything that involves the churches, in order to create factoids, reforming everything that was prepared by the past government”, he says. “With regard to matters of social interest to Christians, extending the scope of social security exemption to pastors cannot be seen as a privilege, but a matter of justice.”

According to him, the Evangelical base in Congress is on alert to resist eventual changes.

The Revenue sent information about the case to the TCU in February this year. The court had opened a procedure in 2022 to investigate possible irregularities in the edition of the ADI. At the end of this procedure, the regulation may be totally or partially revised.