A (in)constitucionalidade das multas tributárias previstas na lei do ICMS de alagoas em face da vedação ao confisco: uma análise à luz dos critérios adotados pela atual jurisprudência do Suprem Tribunal Federal

Abstract

The current paper was aimed at ranking the tax penalties set by the Indirect Tax Code of the State of Alagoas (Law no. 5.900/96) according to their nature, thus intending to point out the possible confiscatory aspect of each one based on the recently established limits set by case law rulings by the Federal Supreme Court (STF). That being so, an analysis of the main features barring confiscation in accordance with what is set in CR/88 (art. 150, IV) and in infra-constitutional legislation revealed how legal doctrine and case law address the prohibition of confiscation when it comes to tax penalties and outline the criteria used in current STF jurisprudence to rank tax penalties according to their nature and the limits that define them as having a confiscatory nature. Thereafter the tax penalties set by the State of Alagoas Indirect Tax Law (its hypotheses and consequences) were outlined and classified. The methodological framework of the current study is based on qualitative case law research that brought out results after firmer analyses and more accurate discussions. The work was divided into two phases: the first step consisted of a bibliographical review, the indispensable groundwork of any research, with its specifically cataloged and selected information background, which provided the theoretical and empirical knowledge that guided the work herein; the second step involved document gathering by perusing STF case law dating all the way back to 1965, whose data helped to assess and accurately interpret the reality brought forth by that information and thus helped to address the issue. The relevance of the subject matter is clear when one thinks of the actual likelihood of tax penalties that infringe the State of Alagoas Indirect Tax Law (Law no. 5.900/96), thus hampering taxpayers’ ability to lead a dignified existence, hold a job or run a business, and even meet their most basic needs (the result of confiscatory taxation).