THE POWER TO TAX THE INCOME AND THE “INCONCEIVABLE PHENOMENON OF FOSSILIZATION OF THE CONSTITUTION”

Abstract

The Brazilian doctrine grants to the tax power norms a distinguished interpretation. It is usually stated that for granting the tax power to federated entities, these norms cannot be the object of a broad interpretation or an interpretation detached from the usual meaning existing in the promulgation of the Constitution. Moreover, the description of the taxable economic fact should be done with accuracy and stringency of these norms, to preserve the taxpayers’ legal certainty. When analyzing the language used by the constituent in the tax powers’ settlement, however, it is remarkable the presence of broad and open ex-pressions, as opposed to the accuracy and stringency so many times advocated. Especially regarding the tax income, there is an openness to the mutable economic conceptions, whose meaning can evolve with the change of the economy before the technological innovations.