O imposto sobre grandes fortunas no Brasil e a redução das desigualdades socioeconômicas: exame da constitucionalidade do PLP 277/2008

Abstract

The wealth tax, despite its original provision in the 1988 Brazilian Constitution, has not been instituted in Brazil until now. In times of fiscal crisis, attention is focused on bills that seek to regulate this tax. In this sense, it analyzes the constitutionality of PLP 277/2008, pending before the Chamber of Deputies. Setting apart arguments against the imposition of the wealth tax in Brazil, the tax is examined within a broader context of constitutional economic order, to indicate that it is the purpose of the 1988 Constitution to promote equal justice due to the inadequacy of the meritocratic model of market societies. After a discuss on the indeterminate concept of "large fortunes" and the definition of taxpayers, it concludes that, although PLP 277/2008 is unconstitu tional in a formal and material sense, by distorting the concept of "great fortune" and by defying the principles of contributory capacity, prohibition of confiscation and fiscal isonomy, the wealth tax must be properly instituted in Brazil, with the purpose of reducing socioeconomic inequalities.