Note Paulista: millionaire prizes are forgotten – 06/06/2023 – Market

Annoyed by the list of draws on the Nota Fiscal Paulista who did not receive the prize because they could not be located, auditor Jair Rosa, head of the tax office at the Secretariat of Finance and Planning of the State of São Paulo, in Marília, in the interior of São Paulo, asked permission to look for the contemplated. Since January of this year, he managed to locate 36 draws, which made it possible to deliver BRL 7.2 million in prizes.

One of the calls went to journalist B. Salles, 54, from São Paulo, who answered suspiciously, believing it to be another coup attempt. “I spoke snakes and lizards to him,” she says.

The college debts of the two daughters plagued her until the beginning of this year. She knew she would not be able to pay what she owed and the dream of higher education had become a nightmare for the family. “My situation was very serious,” she says.

Jair insisted, sent messages via WhatsApp and, finally, an email with an image of the draw. The journalist blocked the auditor’s number, but kept the messages and looked for a post at the Treasury Department in the capital.

On the spot, I learned that the civil servant was right. She would receive an amount that would allow her to pay her debts and ease her financial situation. She had a crying crisis and got sick. After being calmed down, she called Jair, apologized and thanked him numerous times for his insistence.

“At that moment I desperately needed money, to an absurd extent,” he says. “I’m still grateful.”

For security reasons, prizes above R$ 100,000 need to be identified at the tax offices. However, taxpayers who do not keep their records up to date run the risk of not being located and losing money if they are not found within a period of five years.

People competing for prizes, which range from R$1,000 to R$1 million, informed their CPFs on purchases – for every R$100 spent, the consumer digitally receives a card from the program’s monthly draw.

“In my view, we at the Treasury Department have to do something to let these people know about the award”, says the auditor. He claims that consumers have done their part to fight tax evasion and therefore deserve the effort he has personally decided to undertake.

Server searches through the IPVA, CNPJ and Google system

Jair uses several tools to locate taxpayers: he consults IPVA data, checks for contact records in possible business openings and searches on Google. Makes contact attempts by phone, WhatsApp, email and letters.

The main difficulty, according to him, is not locating those drawn, but convincing them that he is speaking the truth.

In the letters, the auditor even makes an appeal: “If you think this is a prank, disregard the warning, lose the prize and never regret that luck is not in your favor”.

One of the contemplated only believed when she received a visit from a son, who saw the official correspondence and called the auditor, next to his mother. She apologized for being suspicious in the first contacts, spoke about the various prank calls she had already received and said that the value of the raffle would be useful for her children and grandchildren.

A draw from Pompeia, also in the interior of São Paulo, asked for help for a nephew to talk to Jair by phone. The auditor instructed the young man to reach the electronic address that would inform the amount received. Upon confirming, aunt and nephew cried so much that they scared the children of the house. “It was very emotional”, recalls the auditor, also in tears.

To locate a resident of Manduri, a city of 10,000 inhabitants in the Marília region, he called a pharmacy and a gas station. In a few minutes she managed to speak with the recipient, a school bus driver.

Among the rewards, he received a letter from the journalist in which he says that his work will train a lawyer and a cultural producer.

“It is for these and other reasons that I think I was actually the winner”, says the auditor. “It is a job that I will continue as long as there is someone who was drawn and who was not contacted.”