The acting Internal Revenue Service secretary, Otacílio Cartaxo, said today (08/11), during a deposition made to the Federal Senate’s Parliamentary Investigation Commission (CPI), that neither the National Tax Code nor the Internal Revenue Service’s normative instructions determine when companies must opt for one of the exchange variation calculation systems, whether the cash or the accrual base. “The current legislations are ommissive about this issue,” he stated. According to the secretary, in 2003, a consultation was made regarding changing the system, and it was determined companies could do this in any month.
The matter, said Cartaxo, will still be discussed by the Internal Revenue Service’s Tax Coordination and by the Treasury Department’s General Attorney’s Office.
The secretary also said that the institute of compensating for previously paid amounts is provided for by the law. He also emphasized that the purpose of the provisional measure that instituted the option for the cash and of the accural basis is precisely to attenuate the impact the exchange variation has on company accounting and, therefore, beneficial for collection. “These systems were created aiming to reduce the impact exchange crises have on company accounting statements.”
The secretary said no company has been fined because it changed its tax collection system. Answering a question made by senator Álvaro Dias (PSDB-PR), he stated that paying some taxes with net credits and others with receivable credits does not imply in losses to the Union, states, and municipalities.
Senator Delcício Amaral (PT-MS) said Petrobras’ choice of the cash basis for exchange compensations is technical, justifiable from the accounting viewpoint, and legal. According to Amaral, the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) has informed “there is no accounting issue involved, since the company continues acknowledging its taxes on the accrual basis, even if a temporal change is made to its actual disbursement.” Additionally, “the system Petrobras picked to pay taxes was not contested by the Internal Revenue Service at any moment,” he said. To Amaral, about 5,000 companies opted for the cash system. “It was a smart, proper decision, since the international scenario is breaking apart and companies need to be careful,” he emphasized. Amaral highlighted the fact that the treasury suffered no loss on account of Petrobras’ opting for the cash system.
To senator Antônio Carlos de Magalhães Jr. (DEM-BA), “it cannot be said Petrobras practiced an illicit act.” Senator Inácio Arruda (PC do B-CE), meanwhile, emphasized Petrobras’ decision was not only defendable: “It was just, correct, and necessary,” he said.
The CPI will meet again next Tuesday (08/18) to hear the CEO and directors of the National Petroleum Agency (ANP).
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