The purpose of the request was to release goods that were under tax inspection due to possible under-invoicing, punishable only by a fine, and not by forfeiture, according to the understanding summarized by the Supreme Federal Court (323/STF).
In the decision, the Federal Judge explained that there is already a precedent from the Superior Court regarding the isolated under-invoicing of imports, characterized by ideological falsehood in the commercial invoice concerning the value, nature, or quantity of the imported goods, and that in this sense, the penalty of forfeiture provided for in article 105, item VI, of Decree-Law 37/66 does not apply, but rather the penalty of a fine stipulated in article 108, sole paragraph, of the aforementioned regulation.
And this is how the magistrate understood it: “"In the specific circumstances of this case, upon summary review, this is what occurred. As reported and explained as the reason for the interruption, alleged discrepancies were observed between the declared value and the price actually charged (isolated under-invoicing), which would alter the amount of other taxes to be collected and would trigger the imposition of a fine."”.
In this vein, according to established case law on the matter, in the case of isolated under-invoicing of imports, characterized by ideological falsehood in the commercial invoice regarding the value of the imported goods, the penalty of forfeiture provided for in Article 105, item VI, of Decree-Law 37/66 does not apply, but rather the penalty of a fine stipulated in Article 108, sole paragraph, of the aforementioned legal instrument.
In this case, the office DB Tesser Law Firm He demonstrated that both the legislation and the jurisprudential understanding corroborated his grounds for the release of the assets.
Decision commented by Rebeca Ayres, Lawyer, graduated in Law in Graduated in 2017 from the Baiana Faculty of Law/BA, specializing in Customs Law and Foreign Trade from Univali-Itajaí.. Areas of Expertise: Customs Law, Tax Law, and Maritime Law. OAB/BA 57.313 and OAB/SC 52.845.
