Title VI - taxation and budget chapter I - the national tax system section I - general principles

Article 145. The Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities may institute the following tributes: I - taxes; II - fees, by virtue of the exercise of police power or for the effective or potential use of specific and divisible public services, rendered to the taxpayer or made available to him;  III - benefit charges, resulting from public works. Paragraph 1 - Whenever possible, taxes shall have an individual character and shall be graded according to the economic capacity of the taxpayer, and the tax administration may, especially to confer effectiveness upon such objectives, with due respect to individual rights and under the terms of the law, identify the property, the incomes and the economic activities of the taxpayer. Paragraph 2 - Fees may not have the assessment basis reserved for taxes. Article 146. A supplementary law shall: I - provide for conflicts of competence concerning tax matters between the Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities; II - regulate the constitutional limitations on the power to tax; III - establish general rules concerning tax legislation, especially with regard to: a) the definition of tributes and their types, as well as, regarding the taxes specified in this Constitution, the definition of the respective taxable events, assessment bases and taxpayers;  b) tax liability, assessment, credit, limitation and laches; c) adequate tax treatment for the cooperative acts of cooperative associations; d) definition of diferentiated and favorable treatment for micro enterprises and small size enterprises, including special or simplified regimes in the cases of the tax established by article 155, II, of the contributions established by article 195, I and paragraphs 12 and 13, and of the contribution subject of article 239.

Letter d added by CA 42, December 19th 2003. The CA 42 became known as the Tax Reform. Sole paragraph. The supplementary law subject of clause III, d, may also institute a regime of centralized collection of taxes and contributions of the Union, States, Federal District and municipalities, with observance of the following: I - it shall be optional for the taxpayer; II - different enrollment conditions may be established for each State; III - the collection shall be unified and centralized and the distribution of the shares of proceeds to the respective federated entities shall be immediate, any retention or conditioning being forbidden; IV - the collection, the auditing and the execution may be conducted jointly by the federated entities, with adoption of a sole national database of tax payers.

Sole paragraph and respective clauses added by CA 42, December 19th 2003.

Article 146-A. Supplementary law may establish special criteria of taxing, with the purpose of preventing unequalities of competition, without prejudice of the competence of the Union, by means of a law, to establish norms with the same objective.

Article 146-A added by CA 42, December 19th 2003.

Article 147. In a federal territory, state taxes are within the competence of the Union and, if the territory is not divided into municipalities, also municipal taxes; municipal taxes are within the competence of the Federal District. Article 148. The Union may, by means of a supplementary law, institute compulsory loans: I - to meet extraordinary expenses resulting from public calamity, foreign war or the imminence thereof; II - in the case of public investment of an urgent nature and relevant national interest, observing the provisions of article 150, III, b. Sole paragraph - The use of funds deriving from a compulsory loan shall be linked to the expense that justified the institution thereof.  Article 149. The Union shall have the exclusive competence to institute social contributions, contributions of intervention in the economic order and contributions of interest of categories of employees or employers, as an instrument of its activity in the respective areas, observing the provisions of articles 146, III, and 150, I and III, and without prejudice to the provisions of article 195, paragraph 6, as regards the contributions mentioned in the latter article.  Paragraph 1. The States, the Federal District and the municipalities shall institute contribution, paid by their servers, for the funding, in benefit of them, of the social security regime subject of article 40, and the rate shall not be inferior to the rate of the contribution paid by the servants holders of effective offices of the Union.

Former sole paragraph was turned into paragraph 1 by CA 41, December 19th 2003. Original text read: "Sole paragraph - The states, the Federal District and the municipalities may institute a contribution payable by their employees to fund social security and assistance systems for the benefit of the latter." After the CA, States and municipalities are obliged to collect a social security contribution from their civil servants. Paragraph 2. The social contributions and the contributions of intervention in the economic order referred to in the caput of this article:

Paragraph 2 added by CA 33, December 11th 2001.

I - shall not be levied on proceeds derived from exportations;

Clause I added by CA 33, December 11th 2001.

II - shall be levied on the importation of foreigner products or services;

Clause II added by CA 42, December 19th 2003.

III - may have rates: a) ad valorem, having as assessment bases the turnout, the gross revenue or the amount of the transaction and, in case of importation, the customs value; b) specific, having as assessment bases the measure unit adopted. 

Clause III added by CA 33, December 11th 2001.

Paragraph 3. The individuals recipients of importation transactions may be equiparated to corporations, in the manner prescribed by law. Paragraph 4. The law shall define the cases in which the contributions shall be levied only once.

Paragraph 3 and 4 added by CA 39, December 19th 2002.