Large companies open battle against Haddad’s measure – 01/30/2023 – Panel SA

The battle of the big companies against one of the points of the tax package of the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, began: the return of the so-called casting vote in CARF (Administrative Council of Tax Appeals).

The measure, which gives back to the government the tie-breaking vote in the litigation of large taxpayers with the Revenue, goes into practice this week with the start of the trial sessions from this Wednesday (1st), but the reactions in Justice have already begun.

With the arrival of the judgments, giants such as Petrobras, Rumo, Santander and Parker Hannifin went to court to try to avoid, with injunctions, their cases being judged while Congress does not decide on the provisional measure that ended the tiebreaker in favor of companies, instituted in 2020. The expectation is that it will be overthrown by parliamentarians.

After the launch of Haddad’s package, at the beginning of January, tax lawyers defending large companies warned that the return of the casting vote could increase tax litigation and thwart the plans of the Ministry of Finance to raise R$ 50 billion this year with this and other changes in the way the organ works.

For lawyer Luiz Gustavo Bichara, from Bichara Advogados, it would be better for Carf to wait for the provisional measure to be voted instead of rushing through so many important cases before the definition in Congress. “I prefer to believe that CARF will not deviate from its institutional mission, and will continue to judge cases in an independent and technical manner”, he says.

Joana Cunha with Paulo Ricardo Martins and Diego Felix

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