Brief Criticism to the Foundations for Tax Immunity of Religious Entities

Abstract

This article proposes to analyze, with support in comparative law, the pertinence of the rule of immunity of religious temples with the reasons that justify it. It rescues the historical components of the institution of the rule from the period of the ancient Egypt and the Roman Empire, identifying, in addition to the main reasons for this, the development of relations between the church and the State. It briefly describes the exempt rule foreseen in American Law, whose characteristics, in this respect, to a certain extent resemble the Brazilian experience, even in relation to the conflicts existing between the churches and the tax authority. Asserts there should be no necessary link between the constitutional guarantee of freedom of worship and the immunity of the temples, including the fact that religious freedom was introduced not before tax exemption for churches, and points out that such immunity would be better associated with the idea of laicity, although with reservations, and with the charity. It denounces the occurrence of possible violations of the principle of tax isonomy, thereby defending changes in Brazilian legislation, insofar as it demands greater control by the tax authority in relation to the application of religious temple revenues, as it does with charities that also enjoy tax immunity.