Brazilian Federal Supreme Court and the Tax Fines Limitation

The Judicial Arbitration of the Objective Limits of Non-confiscation

Abstract

Based on the Federal Supreme Court´s understanding of the application of the principiological content of prohibition of confiscation of tax fines, the article criticizes the judicial arbitration of the objective limits of the principle referred through opinions pre-established by the Court regarding the assessment of the seriousness of tax infractions and, correspondingly, of the purposes – pedagogical and/or punitive – of the application of the corresponding fines, demonstrating that the greater severity of unpunctuality as a tax offense is not a constant in tax legislation and that the distinction between tax fines in the light of the criterion of its respective purposes is, in addition to being inaccurate, insufficient to justify the graduation of tax fines.