Com efeito, muitas vezes determinadas importações realizadas acabam sendo parametrizadas para o Canal Cinza de conferência aduaneira, por suspeita de subfaturamento
No subfaturamento o importador declara à autoridade aduaneira, com base em documento falso, que determinada mercadoria foi adquirida para fins de importação por um valor bem inferior àquele efetivamente praticado, com a intenção/dolo de diminuir a base de cálculo dos tributos incidentes na operação de importação (dolo de fraudar), fato este que violaria a livre concorrência e o controle aduaneiro e cambial das operações pela Aduana.
In cases of proven under-invoicing, the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF), through the judgment of RE 1090591, the leading case of Topic 1042, has ruled that it is constitutional to condition the customs clearance of imported goods on the payment of differences determined by arbitration of the prices of the goods carried out by the Tax Authority. The problem in this case is the way in which the Tax Authority proceeds with the arbitration of prices, since it frequently does so in disregard of the sequence foreseen by the GATT Agreement, which would invalidate the administrative procedure in which the aforementioned arbitration occurred.
In this text, I will present two new developments that I consider among the most important for the conduct of commercial activities by importers of goods penalized for under-invoicing of imported goods. These are:
1) Normative Instruction RFB No. 2,090/2022 includes a specific chapter detailing the methods for determining customs value. In this regard, it describes the provisions related to the transaction value method, which is the most widely applied, systematizing it as follows:
a) Conditions for Using the Transaction Value Method;
b) The Price Actually Paid or to be Paid;
c) Adjustments to the Transaction Value;
d) Da Impossibilidade de Utilização do Método do Valor de Transação. Uma vez sendo impossível a utilização do método de valoração, a IN elenca os chamados Métodos Substitutivos de Valoração, sendo o primeiro deles a já conhecida, mas infelizmente nem sempre aplicada, ordem sequencial estabelecida no AVA/GATT.
2) Verification of the accuracy of the declared customs value will be carried out after the goods have been cleared through customs;
Even though, unfortunately, the Brazilian Federal Revenue Service (RFB) and the Judiciary continue to move in the opposite direction, the legislative system had already embraced the idea that a simple price discrepancy was no longer considered evidence of fraud sufficient to send goods to the Gray Channel for customs clearance.
In effect, IN No. 1,986/20, in addition to revoking IN No. 1,169/11, amended IN No. 680/06 to include Article 41-A, creating a customs inspection subsystem aimed at investigating evidence of fraud, called the Customs Fraud Prevention Inspection Procedure (FCF). In this sense, IN No. 1,986/20 altered the wording of item VI of Article 21 of IN No. 680/06, eliminating the referral of the Import Declaration (DI) to the Gray Channel for customs clearance when the discrepancy only concerned the declared price of the imported goods.
The only possible interpretation of the legislative change made by IN No. 1,986/20 would be that a simple price discrepancy would no longer be considered evidence of fraud to be investigated in the Customs Fraud Prevention Inspection Procedure, so that goods could not be retained solely on the basis of an alleged price discrepancy.
However, even with this rule in place, the Federal Revenue Service often subjects certain imports, where there has supposedly been a price discrepancy, to the Customs Fraud Prevention Inspection Procedure (FCF), improperly retaining the goods and requiring prompt legal action to obtain the right to customs clearance from the Judiciary.
Brazilian Federal Revenue Service Normative Instruction No. 2,090/2022 consolidated the impossibility of retaining goods in case of price discrepancies, determining in this sense that "the verification of the adequacy of the declared customs value to the rules and provisions established in the legislation will be carried out after the release of the goods – customs clearance, during the period intended for the verification of regularity and conclusion of the dispatch, provided for in article 54 of Decree-Law No. 37, of November 18, 1966."“
Assim, a verificação da regularidade do Valor Aduaneiro declarado terá de recair na chamada “Revisão Aduaneira”, e não mais no Procedimento de Fiscalização de Combate às Fraudes Aduaneiras (FCF), afastando, destarte, a retenção das mercadorias em caso de suspeita de subfaturamento
As inovações trazidas pela Instrução Normativa RFB nº 2.090/2022 são muito recentes e nos resta aguardar como se posicionarão RFB e Judiciário em relação a elas. Mas acreditamos que as disposições supramencionadas poderão amparar ainda mais o importador que, imbuído de boa-fé, teve indevidamente retidas suas mercadorias em razão do subfaturamento
Article by Renato Palaia, Lawyer, graduated in Law in 2002 from Paulista University/SP, specializing in Business and Customs Law.
OAB/SP No. 222.378
