Limites ao Planejamento Tributário sob a Ótica Penal

Abstract

The corporate tax planning with the purpose of reducing tax burden to the lowest possible is something done by the majority of companies. When it is developed through legal means, it represents nothing more than the right of the entrepreneur and taxpayer to increase profits in its business. However, in the search for competitiveness, it has become common practice the use of this right abusively or even with fraud. This study has the purpose of contributing to delimitate the boundaries between the legal tax planning and the tax crimes. Due to the diffi-culties to interpret a Tax Law subject in light of the Criminal Law, this study was based in an interdisciplinary approach, through the methodology of critical analysis of the Law and the doctrine regarding tax planning definitions as well as the grounds of the crimes against the tax order with the purpose of, finally, making this marriage happen. In this sense, the first chapter is dedicated to the presentation of the different interpretations of the tax events and laws, considering their impacts to the legitimacy of a tax planning. The following chapter presents concepts of Private Law and Tax Law to understand tax planning. In the third chapter, tax avoidance, abusive tax avoidance and tax evasion are analyzed under the formal and non formal approaches. The tax crimes are discussed in the fourth chapter in order to take a position, in the final chapter, about the boundaries of the tax planning from a criminal point of view. The conclusion points towards the necessity of a greater development of the subject from a criminal point of view, in order to develop a more objective and clear regulation, which allows to reconcile the interests of taxpayers and the society