TRIBUTAÇÃO MUNICIPAL COMO INSTRUMENTO DE EFETIVIDADE AO PRINCÍPIO DO MEIO AMBIENTE ECOLOGICAMENTE EQUILIBRADO

Resumo

Introduction: It is known that in the contemporary stage the humanity lives with a dramatic environmental crisis, whose effects reflect difficulties across the globe, providing the irrefutable global warming, perishing of flora and fauna specimens, among many other regrettable episodes. International public policies are proving unsatisfactory to curb objectionable human actions, and much more ineffective in helping environmental recovery programs. Therefore, before the various political and legal instruments for environmental preservation, tax extrafiscality stands out as an auxiliary mechanism for the preservation and recovery of the Brazilian environment. Objective: Consequently, this research aims to analyze the legal and tax mechanisms that can be used by the municipal tax administration as an instrument to mitigate environmental impacts in Brazil. Method: In this sense, first, the deductive method was applied to understand the dogmatic and structuring peculiarities of the Brazilian National Tax System, in particular: the tax competences related to the Municipalities. Next, the phenomenon of environmental taxation was analyzed, as well as its institutional limits and the pragmatic consequences of this type of exaction. Still, the comparative method was used to indicate its implementation in the municipalities. Results: In fact, the following assumptions were found: (I) Considering all tax competences, among the taxes that may have an environmental extrafiscal nature, the following stand out: Import Tax; Export Tax; Income tax; Tax on Industrialized Product; Tax on Rural Territorial Property; Tax on Circulation of Goods and Services;  Vehicle Ownership Tax; Territorial and Urban Property Tax; Tax on Services of Any Nature, Fee for the Exercise of Police Power; and Compulsory Loan; (II) The Polluter Pays Principle in the tax sphere can only be applied when the Federal Constitution expressly authorizes it, under penalty of conceptual subversion of the tax defined in the Brazilian National Tax Code; (III) Compared to other federative entities, the Brazilian municipalities lack sufficient tax competence to curb, transform and reverse the national environmental framework, with the urgent need for a tax reform; (IV) The progressive IPTU (Territorial and Urban Property Tax) due to the social function of the property is the main and most impactful instrument of municipal environmental taxation. Conclusion: In view of the results of this research, municipal environmental taxation, when rationally employed, considering the principle of subsidiarity and the role of the municipality as a transforming agent, can serve as a healthy aid mechanism to promote the principle of the environment ecologically balanced.

Keywords: Tax Law. Environmental Law. Environmental Taxation. Principle of the Ecologically Balanced Environment. Municipal Tax Administration.