Pressure leads Haddad to create a group to deal with pastors

The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, stated that the government created a working group to discuss the tax exemption on pastoralists' remuneration. According to him, there was an “undue politicization” of the issue. The announcement was made this Friday, 19th, after a meeting with congressmen from the Evangelical Parliamentary Front.

On Wednesday, the 17th, the Federal Revenue had suspended a measure taken by Jair Bolsonaro's administration that guaranteed pastors the status of individual taxpayers and, in practice, gave churches arguments to contest the collection of social security debts on prebends (name given to ecclesiastical remuneration). The decision generated harsh criticism from the evangelical bench in Congress.

“We suspended an act and created a working group, with the Union and TCU (Federal Audit Court), to understand how to interpret the law approved in Congress in a way that neither harms nor benefits anyone,” stated Haddad.

Interpretation

According to the minister, as there are doubts about the interpretation, the working group with technicians from control bodies will help establish the definitive interpretation of the rule on tax exemption for churches. “The role of the IRS and the government is to comply with the law, in accordance with what was established by Congress,” he said.

According to Haddad, the IRS seeks to understand the extent of this benefit and this is essential for auditors to have legal certainty when interpreting and applying the tax exemption rule. “As there was an act that was not validated and there is, on the part of the TCU, an issue that has not yet been judged, we cannot continue to live with this issue (of uncertainty about interpretation). This is why the AGU was activated. We are here to comply with the law. The AGU was called to put an end to the discussion. There was a lot of undue politicization, we are discussing rules and we are going to depoliticize this,” he said.

'Suspension'

After the meeting, deputies Silas Câmara (Republicanos-AM), president of the Evangelical Parliamentary Front of the Chamber, and Marcelo Crivella (Republicanos-RJ) confirmed that the working group will culminate in the publication of a new act for regulation. Câmara – one of the most severe critics of the suspension of the act, which he classified as “regrettable” – made a point of saying that there was no cancellation, just suspension of the regulatory act that dealt with the issue, and that this occurred due to a series of disagreements. According to the deputy, the question asked to Haddad was about the fall of the act that regulated the application of the law.

With the reestablishment of dialogue, the expectation is that noise about the suspension of the regulation will cease, which needs to reflect the notes of control bodies, such as the TCU and the Federal Public Ministry. He also reiterated that the suspension of the act does not cause losses to pastors and that this is a dubious statement, since the law has not been changed. Asked about signs of misuse of the instrument by pastors, Câmara rejected the accusations and said that there is no “way” in the religious segment, especially evangelicals, to use benefits irregularly.

Crivella stated that there is no persecution from the government in relation to the law that gives tax immunity to pastors, as the suspended resolution only provided instructions for inspectors in the case of applying the exemption. He also said that he took advantage of the meeting to discuss with Haddad about the PEC presented by him that provides tax immunity for religious temples. According to him, the minister and government are in favor of the merits of the topic. (COLLABORATE WITH KARINA FERREIRA)

The information is from the newspaper The State of S. Paulo.