Consumption Tax and the Taxpayer in a Possible Paradigm Change for Indirect Taxation in Brazil

shifting the Incidence from Production to Consumption

Abstract

This article starts from a scientific-speculative exercise, proposed by Professor Luís Eduardo Schoueri, to examine the legal viability of defining the recipient of goods and services as a taxpayer of consumption tax in Brazil. It is thought that this paradigm shift in consumer taxation in Brazil would have the advantage of bringing the tax and economic perspectives of consumed income closer together, as well as improving the legal treatment given to the final consumer and suppliers of goods and services. Based on a doctrinal, jurisprudential and comparative law examination, it is concluded that the proposal is legally viable, showing how to structure the idealized proposal in our legal system.