Paraíso à vista: o uso de paraísos fiscais como estratégia de planejamento tributário

Abstract

It is argued that tax havens, popularly known as tax havens or by American doctrine as “tax heaven”, are the result of a political movement to attract investors or multinationals by providing tax breaks and facilitating the creation of companies (“offshore”) . Also, in addition to these attractions, there is the prerogative of banking secrecy, which gives total privacy to any banking transaction, which was gradually established during the 1950s. The research establishes that the main requirements of a tax haven are: globally favorable tax system, a high degree of banking and commercial secrecy, a minimum of political and economic stability, lack of exchange controls on non-resident deposits, developed infrastructure and existence of tax treaties. Applying these requirements in the predilection for a tax haven, the specificity of the territory and the taxpayer's objectives are evaluated in tax planning. It happens that, in the investigation of the theme of this work, an approach is adopted on the legality of this planning, as well as permeates in the scope of morality, visualizing society and the role of the media in the construction of prejudices established in common sense in the association of use of tax havens as an illegal practice of tax evasion, which enables “safe” “money laundering” operations, notably related to illegal drug trafficking and corruption. Specifically with the widespread dissemination of information about scandals in the media, such as the Pandora Papers, Fincen Files, Paradise Papers, Panama Papers and others. Within this perspective, the Course Completion Work (TCC) analyzes the legitimacy of tax havens, as well as refines the nuances of the Brazilian tax burden, with a view to the institutes of tax avoidance and evasion in the international scenario. Along the way, one can clearly observe an approach to emblematic cases involving public figures who invested and invest in tax havens and the influence of sociopolitical connections, raising a question about the limits of tax planning. It starts from the idea that in tax law that which is not prohibited by law is considered permitted. Therefore, as only the law can establish the taxable event, what is not described in the law can be practiced. It is evident in the study that the transfer of resources to tax havens can be inferred as a lawful tax planning, however, it has an impact on the expansion of institutes such as abusive tax competition and capital flight. It is worth mentioning that in the development of this Course Completion Work (TCC), the methodology of bibliographical research was used, with citations of renowned scholars, jurists and lawyers in the tax area, whether through books, scientific articles, normative devices or of texts available on reliable sites, with deep investigation of the subject, as it happens in practice, and broad development of theory, always making a link between the two for better understanding.