Government tries to avoid cash hit with new Refis – 09/17/2023 – Panel SA

The government wants to prevent a tax debt confession project being processed in the Senate from becoming a ‘new Refis’, a tax debt refinancing program, and harming revenue collection.

The expectation is that the project will go to a plenary vote in two weeks.

With the aim of reducing the number of taxpayers, the Ministry of Finance is now trying to create a time frame for debts.

In the coming days, prosecutors from the National Treasury will seek changes to the project, which, basically, provides for interest discounts and late payments with the Federal Revenue Service.

According to the proposal, anyone who recognizes debts without questioning them and is willing to pay them in cash will have 100% interest and arrears cancelled.

These discounts on the value of corrections will decrease according to the installment plan. For those who settle the bill within 12 months, the reduction in interest and arrears will be 75%; in 30 months, it will be 50% and, in 48 months, 25%.

The concern is that this program, as it stands, will become an incentive for taxpayers to stop paying their taxes in order to take advantage of the discounts.

The Treasury makes an effort to improve revenue collection, a necessary measure for the success of the fiscal framework, which links expenses to revenue growth. The bigger they are, the more the government can spend.

According to Senator Otto Alencar (PSD-BA), the project’s rapporteur, the government is already discussing with Senator Angelo Coronel, who takes care of the project at the Economic Affairs Committee, to try to put a “brake”.

The government’s idea is to change the text to define a time frame, allowing only older debts to be covered.

The refinancing of tax debts was part of an agreement to speed up the approval of the Carf project.

Thirty years to pay

Despite the fear that it will impact government revenues, the project, on the other hand, allows taxpayers to use court orders to pay off their debts, which helps to reduce public account liabilities.

Precatório are debt securities of the Union with definitive court sentences.

Recently, the government created barriers to the use of these papers.

Treasury Secretary Rogério Ceron projects that, in 2027, the government will have to pay around R$200 billion at once, an amount currently held back due to the Constitutional Amendment sanctioned by the Jair Bolsonaro government, which defined a payment queue.

Projections from funds that trade these securities at market discounts indicate a snowball that will reach R$850 billion, based on data from processes that are still being discussed in court.

If the government manages to maintain the pace of paying these court orders from 2027 onwards, it will take the Union 30 years to pay off its debt, according to calculations by Jequitibá Investimentos.

When consulted, the Federal Revenue Service declined to comment.

With Diego Felix

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