A remodelação ecológica dos tributos no caso brasileiro a partir da reforma tributária: tributação ambiental de sucesso?

Abstract

The Brazilian tax reform reflected in Constitutional Amendment No 132 of 2023 represented and still represents a considerable opportunity for relevant changes to environmentally-oriented taxation in the country. However, these changes may be questioned in practical terms: despite the discussion among social and legislative sectors prompted by the reform regarding the need to include environmental issues in the creation of the new tax system, there are inconsistencies between the constitutional premise reinforced by the Constitutional Amendment No 132, which brought the defense of the environment as a principle of the National Tax System under consideration, and the related infra-constitutional provisions, notably Complementary Law No. 214. One can cite, above all, the maintenance of tax benefits for pesticides provided for in its Article 138 and the lack of greater coverage for taxpayers subject to the Selective Tax, which no longer includes trucks and their polluting potential as possible sources of tax revenue, according to Annex XVII of the aforementioned Complementary Law. For the theoretical analysis of the effectiveness and practical challenges of the new reform, we use the concept of ecological tax remodeling proposed by Denise Lucena Cavalcante, which analyzes tax collection from a systemic environmental perspective. In parallel with the Ecological Tax Reforms (ETRs) implemented in the European Union, notably the German Ecological Tax Reform implemented between 1999 and 2006, it was observed whether such an integrative view of taxation in light of environmental concerns was observed, to a greater or lesser extent, seeking to relate such measures to their application in Brazil. The qualitative, descriptive, and inductive research involved bibliographic, documentary, and legislative analysis. The results indicate greater alignment with the concept of ecological tax reform by most of the European Union countries evaluated, especially in the case of Germany, while Brazil, also a pioneer in advances in the area of Selective Taxation, has room for improvement in terms of a truly systemic approach to taxes as inseparable from environmental issues.