Government will not back down from casting vote in Carf, says Padilha

Despite criticism from businessmen and large taxpayers, the government will maintain the proposal to resume the casting vote in the Administrative Council of Tax Appeals (Carf), said minister Alexandre Padilha, of the Institutional Relations Secretariat, today (6). Accompanied by parliamentarians from the allied base, the minister met this afternoon with the finance minister, Fernando Haddad, to discuss the provisional measure that intends to change the functioning of the council. System that was in force until 2020, the casting vote allowed the president of Carf to tie judgments in the body, which judges taxpayer debts with the Federal Revenue at the administrative level (before the cases go to court). Last month, the government edited a provisional measure to regain the government’s advantage in tiebreakers, as part of the fiscal package that aims to improve public accounts. “At no time does the debate take away the government’s casting vote,” declared Padilha as he left the meeting. He said that companies will be able to go to court if they consider the tiebreaker to be unfair, and that Congress may improve the provisional measure. According to Padilha, only 2% of the processes at Carf reach a tie. The Minister of Institutional Relations said that the government will hold a permanent dialogue with Congress and that, at today’s meeting, Haddad showed party leaders the importance of CARF’s provisional measure to reduce the primary deficit (a negative result in government accounts without the payment of public debt interest), estimated at R$ 231.55 billion for this year. Regarding a possible lack of votes to approve the MP, the leader of the government in the Chamber, deputy José Guimarães (PT-CE), said that the dynamics of Congress are changing and reiterated that the casting vote is a matter of justice for the taxpayer . STF Through an amendment introduced by Congress in 2020, the taxpayer (generally large companies or high-income individuals) now has an advantage in the event of a tie in the CARF judgments. The Federal Court of Auditors (TCU) recommended the return of the Treasury’s tie-breaking vote. However, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) is judging the issue and, so far, has at least five votes to consider the casting vote unconstitutional and maintain the advantage for the taxpayer. Today, two parties, PP and Republicans, filed lawsuits with the Supreme Court to overturn the provisional measure.

Agência Brasil