Eight years ago in the National Congress, the project to punish so-called persistent debtors gained appeal and support after Operation Hidden Carbon, which investigates a billion-dollar evasion and money laundering scheme in the fuel sector and in fintechs linked to criminal factions.
The proposal is to close the siege on taxpayers who repeatedly, deliberately and intentionally fail to pay taxes. The project creates objective parameters to classify these companies and establishes punishments, such as the prohibition of participating in tenders, maintaining links with the public administration and entering into judicial recovery.
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Approved in the Senate, the text is now being processed in the Chamber. See what the project says:
Who is a persistent debtor?
Companies that fail to pay taxes in a “substantial, repeated and unjustified” manner to state tax authorities and the Federal Revenue.
How is the framing?
The project creates objective parameters for classification: companies with tax debt exceeding R$15 million (at the federal level) and greater than their assets, maintained without any attempt to renegotiate for four consecutive months or for more than six months
Who will not be included?
Companies that have joined regularization programs or are questioning the debt at the administrative or judicial level, as long as they present guarantees or are supported by theories of general repercussion.
Also excluded are companies that have become indebted due to public calamities or that have recorded negative results in recent years, without signs of fraud or bad faith (such as the distribution of dividends).
What is the punishment?
The IRS must notify the company 30 days before qualifying. Regular debtor companies will have their CNPJs downloaded and their names published by the tax authorities on a list. They will be prohibited from participating in tenders or maintaining links with the public administration; They will not be able to enter into judicial recovery and, if criminal proceedings are opened against the partners due to the tax debt, they will not be able to ask for forgiveness by paying the late amount.
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If one of the partners tries to open another CNPJ, the new company will also be classified as a regular debtor due to a legal treatment called “related parties”.
What is the objective of the Revenue?
The arguments presented in the defense of the project by the Federal Revenue Service are to punish entrepreneurs who open companies solely with the intention of not paying taxes.
The majority of companies mapped by the tax authorities with this set of characteristics last a short time (about a year), have no assets and are generally used as instruments to evade or commit illicit acts, such as laundering criminal proceeds or keeping partners hidden.
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In this way, the tax authorities claim that the initiative will help combat organized crime and, in marketing terms, remove competitors who compete on unequal levels with others.
What else is in the persistent debtor’s project?
In addition to persistent debtors, complementary bill 125/22 creates programs for good tax payers, Confia and Sintonia. The first is voluntary, aimed at larger companies, with their own tax structures.
The second is automatic, for companies that have good tax payment practices. As a reward, participating companies will be able to obtain a reduction in their Social Contribution on Net Profit (CSLL) of up to three percentage points.
