Compartilhar:
Tax evasion gauge shows bad debts due to public funds in Brazil exceed US$ 136.7 billion
Criado em 25/09/13 19h33
e atualizado em 25/09/13 19h36
Por Daniel Lima
Edição:s
Fonte:Agência Brasil
Brasília – The non-payment of debts due to Brazil’s public funds exceeded US$ 136.7 billion, as indicated by an electric display placed this Wednesday (September 25) outside the National Congress to gauge tax evasion in Brazil. The display was named sonegômetro (from the Portuguese root of sonegação, meaning “tax evasion” + -ômetro, equivalent to “o-meter”). According to the National Union of Public Attorneys of the National Treasury (“Sinprofaz”), this amount would make possible the construction of 10,566,231 fully equipped health care centers.
According to Sinprofaz, the estimated amount lost due to tax evasion surpasses all the money collected as Income Tax (US$ 125.2 billion). Hypothetically, if this amount were to be seen as the GDP of a Brazilian state, it would rank fourth among the richest ones, following São Paulo (US$ 561.5 billion), Rio de Janeiro (US$ 183.1 billion) and Minas Gerais (US$ 15,7 billion).
In the public attorneys’ view, there are two situations: one of them covers the majority of citizens, who have to work up to four months every year just to pay taxes; the second situation, which is “very well disguised”, includes a minority that takes advantage of the several breaches in tax legislation, the neglected cabinets of the Solicitor-General of the Union (“AGU”) and the Prosecutor-General of the National Treasury (“PGFN”), amassing a fortune and feeding the funds generated by corruption, money embezzlement and organized crime.
“Indifferent and comfortably ensconced, the government would rather pass its debts on to the citizens, who must carry one of the heaviest tax loads in the world,” the union says.
However, Luiz Fernando Teixeira Nunes, assistant secretary of the Federal Revenue, guarantees that there has been na effort, at least on the Revenue’s part, to change the reality: “I don’t work with these numbers; they’re in the scope of the Office of the Public Attorney of the National Treasury (…). It is the view of the Federal Revenue that we have in fact enhanced the instruments for the collection of taxes from the great tax-payers.”
He also pointed out that specialized stations have been created and made ready for dealing with the great tax-payers in the fight against tax evasion: “So there is in fact the collection of taxes from workers, from the middle class, but the instruments for collection of taxes from the great tax-payers have also been improved.”
Luiz Fernando Nunes further said that the Revenue has skilled and capable people in its team, who make an effort to act firmly towards these tax-payers. “There are specialized stations in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo exclusively for working with the so-called great tax-payers.”
Editors: Nádia Franco / Lícia Marques
Translators: Fabrício Ferreira
Deixe seu comentário