Secretary of Revenue says that a persistent debtor is a ‘criminal’ who opens a company to owe debt

BRASILIA – The secretary of IRS, Robinson Barreirinhas, stated that the persistent debtor’s project sent by the economic team is the best proposal to discuss the topic. At the Congressthere is also a complementary law that deals with the matter.

“The persistent debtor is not about taxpayers, he is about criminals who open a company to have debt. There are 1,100 companies that are involved in crime and would be classified as persistent debtors”, said Barreirinhas.

The “contumacious debtor” is the businessman who uses default as a business strategy, that is, it acts in bad faith. The text sent to the Chamber by the government, however, faces resistance from some sectors, such as fuel, and also opposing pressure from groups that operate illegally.

“Arguments for a persistent debtor to process a complementary law is equivalent to not approving it. We intend to approve the persistent debtor’s project by ordinary law. We are convinced that our persistent debtor law is better. The resistance of sectors to the stubborn debtor law encourages us to move forward.”

Barreirinhas stated that the Revenue launched the New Zero Litigation notice, to renegotiate taxpayers’ debts with the Tax Authorities of up to R$50 million. The new phase of the program, launched last year, will begin next Monday, the 1st, and will last four months.

According to the secretary, Zero Litigation is a form of tax transaction, membership, in which the rules are formatted and interested parties enter via notice. For Barreirinhas, tax transactions are the best tool to regularize the stock of problems between the tax authorities and the taxpayer.

“Compliance is the future. The logic of compliance is to treat good taxpayers well. The tax transaction is the most powerful tool for regularizing the past and preparing the future of the relationship between the tax authorities and taxpayers”, said the secretary at a press conference in Brasília.

In addition to membership transactions, there are also individual transactions, carried out by large contributors, which are analyzed on a case-by-case basis, and major theses transactions.

Marcio Gonçalves, deputy secretary of registration and substitute service, recalled that a transaction is an agreement and both sides (tax authorities and companies) need to give in to prevent or end disputes.

Discouragement for good payers

Barreirinhas denied that the reissue of Zero Litigation is a disincentive to paying taxes on time as opposed to large refinancing programs, such as Refis. According to him, the tax transaction allows companies at risk of “going broke” to regularize themselves.

“Transaction only has benefits for reducing values ​​for irrecoverable credits. The company is unable to pay more than that. It is not a discouragement as long as the program is well calibrated. That’s why the federal government stopped carrying out large refinancing programs, which are a disincentive for good payers.”

Barreirinhas also avoided saying whether he expects the projected revenue of R$31 billion from tax transactions this year to be achieved through agreements with state-owned companies. According to the secretary, the new phase of Zero Litigation can be accessed until the end of July and the main amount related to payment must be made in up to five installments.

“For this reason, we have not yet changed the projection,” he said, adding that the projection is still conservative, as no new macroeconomic parameters were applied.