Government and deputies close agreement to increase tax exemption for churches

The Ministry of Finance and federal deputies reached an agreement, this Tuesday morning (19), to increase tax exemption for churches through a Proposed Amendment to the PEC Constitution that is already being processed in the Legislature, where it passed a special committee and now it must go to a plenary vote.

The agreement was reached during a meeting between the ministry’s executive secretary, Dario Durigan, and the proposal’s rapporteur, Fernando Máximo (União-RO), as well as other parliamentarians, such as deputy Marcelo Crivella (Republicanos-RJ). Crivella said that the proposal will be presented in the afternoon to the President of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL) to be voted on by Wednesday (20).

As it is an amendment to the Constitution, the proposal must go through two votes with at least 308 favorable votes from parliamentarians. Afterwards, the text still needs to pass through the Senate – the expectation is that the promulgation will take place by Holy Week, between the 24th and 31st of March.

According to Máximo, the agreement is a middle ground between what was being proposed and what was effectively accepted by the government, and which will benefit the provision of social services by churches.

“This is the PEC that we call the ‘PEC of Justice’, which will favor orphanages, daycare centers, non-profit entities, hospitals, therapeutic communities, schools. The government understanding the social work that these institutions do, rescuing lives, rescuing people who use alcohol and drugs, restoring marriages, freeing people from suicide, depression, etc., the government made the calculation. And this calculation has such a low impact considering that PEC 45/2019 will already bring the IPI to zero by 2026, and the benefit is so great, that the Treasury decided to approve the text with a small caveat that we also readily accepted. ”, explained the rapporteur.

The Constitution already provides for tax exemption for churches on goods and services considered essential for the exercise of activities, such as IPTU, IPVA, Income Tax, Cofins and ITCMD. However, the PEC intends to expand the exemption for the acquisition of essential goods for the formation of assets and the free provision of services, such as electricity, construction materials, chairs and equipment such as microphones and speakers.

The Ministry of Finance stated that this exemption will only apply to goods and services aimed at providing free services for a specified period of time.