Denying a request from the Attorney General's Office (AGU) of the government of President Jair Bolsonaro (no party), the Federal Supreme Court Pokémon TCG card game is immune from taxes in Brazil. Check out the Dispatch .
Minister Cármen Lúcia accepted the argument that the letters encourage reading and therefore can be considered books for tax immunity purposes. Currently, a basic pack of 20 cards costs R$15.00 .
Therefore, the tax benefit is provided for in article 150 of the Federal Constitution , which provides tax exemption with the aim of reducing the final price of books, newspapers and sticker albums . The law was created to reduce the final price of items that can stimulate the population's access to culture, information and education.
Although a Pokémon card is not a book or even a sticker, minister Cármen Lúcia agreed that the law needs to be read broadly and that the cards can encourage children to become familiar with printed media. “Ultimately meeting the purpose of the tax benefit” , agreed the minister.
The decision was published in April last year and could pave the way for other card games to be exempt from taxes like books in the country.
Recently, the Minister of Economy , Paulo Guedes , floated the possibility of ending tax exemptions for books ( via Gazeta do Povo ). If the idea goes ahead, the federal government will be able to tax Pokémon cards.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
anime cards and Tax Legislation in Brazil is not new. More than a decade ago, in 2009, the currency was launched.
On the one hand, the Industry Center of the State of Amazonas (Cieam) and the Attorney General of the National Treasury (PGFN), a body linked to the AGU , questioned in court the tax benefit granted to the company Devir Livraria in the sale of the Pokémon TCG.
Devir framed the game as an educational object and therefore counted on the exemption of books and newspapers. Analyzing the issue for years, the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region (TRF3) won the case for Pokémon and denied the application of additional taxes requested by the federative entities.
But the federal government still had some winning cards in this dispute.
In 2020, the Attorney General of the National Treasury, like someone using a coaching letter, took the discussion to the STF, the highest court in the country. The PGFN filed an Extraordinary Appeal with Appeal (ARE), asking the STF to suspend the TRF3 decision and allow the application of taxes until the issue was decided once and for all.
It was then that the unusual happened. The definition of what Pokémon cards are and the government's request stopped at the table of minister Carmém Lúcia , who had to look into the game.
The federal government argued that the TRF of equating Pokémon with books or a sticker album for tax exemption was superficial . Firstly, the TCG was a strategy . Then, the most obvious, the Pokémon cards were not stickers to be understood as stickers.
“The immunity rule provided for in the constitutional text aims to encourage the advancement of culture, democracy, education, access to information and a Pokémon game certainly does not serve this purpose ” argued the federal government.
The PGFN was convinced that the cards did not encourage reading — they merely complemented a game of conquest and exchange, an element taxed by the Federal Revenue in the classification of “playing cards”.
The STF did not accept the arguments. manga , described by the defense as “illustrated books”, was in favor of Pokémon TCG .
The understanding went further. The Supreme Court minister accepted that Pokémon TCG stimulates the search for knowledge and framed a letter as a vehicle for transmitting printed information to children.
Furthermore, the arguments on the table, Pokémon TCG was included in the concept of immunizing tax rule books and periodicals.
Finally, the STF denied the AGE and also ordered the federal government to pay 10% of the legal fees. The case returned to TRF3, where it can still be reviewed, but now with a super effective blow coming from a higher court.
Text copied from blog: The Enemy
