This Tuesday, the Chamber of Deputies approved the bill which creates a national framework to identify and punish the so-called persistent debtor, the name given to the taxpayer whose default is considered “significant, repeated and unjustified”. The score was 436 votes in favor and only two votes against.
The rapporteur, MP Antonio Carlos Rodrigues (PL-SP), fully maintained the text approved by the Senate, which allows the proposal to be submitted directly to President Lula for sanction, without the need for a new vote in the Review Chamber.
The advance was built after an agreement between the government’s political coordination and the Ministry of Finance. The project is treated as a priority by the economic team. The internal order does not modify the Senate text to ensure its rapid approval and avoid delays.
The project was approved even after the confusion generated after the deputy Glauber Braga (PSOL-RJ) occupied the presidency of the President of the Chamber, Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), during this Tuesday’s session. He was forcibly removed by legislative police after about an hour.
How does the identification of a persistent debtor work?
The project establishes objective criteria:
- Repetition of debts: minimum number of tax offenses committed systematically over a given period;
- Essential character: total value of the default and relevant tax impact for the Union;
- Unjustification: proven contributory capacity, accompanied by an intention to defraud or the adoption of artificial practices to avoid paying taxes;
- Pattern of behavior: use of business structures focused on simulation, shell companies, fraudulent inheritances or recurrence of patterns already identified by the IRS.
This set of elements, according to the Revenue and the General Prosecutor’s Office of the National Treasury (PGFN), makes it possible to differentiate the persistent debtor from the common taxpayer or the company in temporary financial difficulty, a concern which guided a large part of the construction of the text.
Once the persistent debtor has been identified, the project provides for a set of restrictions:
- Prohibition on participating in calls for tenders and entering into contracts with public authorities;
- Prevent you from benefiting from tax advantages or incentives;
- Prohibition of entry or pursuit of legal recovery, in the event of structured fraud;
- Adoption of precautionary measures by the PGFN, with the possibility of preventive actions to avoid the dissipation of assets.
The approved text also specifies that these sanctions cannot be applied automatically: they require an adversarial administrative procedure, the possibility of defense and review.
Cooperative Compliance and Incentives
One of the central points of the report is that the project does not limit itself to punishing: it creates cooperative compliance instruments, such as the Confia and Sintonia programs, intended to establish a more transparent relationship between the Federal Treasury and taxpayers. Among the mechanisms considered:
- Prior self-regularization before opening punitive proceedings;
- Risk classification to identify taxpayers with good tax behavior;
- Compliance bonus, which reduces fines for companies that maintain a positive history;
- Environment of permanent dialogue between Revenue and economic sectors to anticipate disputes.
Treasury argues that this design, which combines tough penalties for fraudulent structures and incentives for compliance, reduces litigation, improves legal certainty and contributes to predictable revenue collection.
Political impact and business support
The text also benefited from the support of economic sectors. In a statement, entities such as Abegás, Fiesp, ANTF, IbP, Sindicom, UNICA, ABRASCA, ABTP and Instituto Combustível Legal (ICL) said the project addresses historical gaps and modernizes the compliance system.
“Maintaining the current regulatory vacuum and the fragmentation of rules in this area benefits precisely those agents who operate outside the law, many of whom are associated with organized criminal structures which use tax default as a source of financing and distortion of competition,” the document states.
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