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Brazil's Supreme Court Opens Trial on Congress’s Failure to Enact Wealth Tax

Justices heard PSOL’s argument, with proceedings set to resume on October 29.

Overview

  • The case, filed by PSOL in 2019, asks the court to declare that Congress failed to pass the complementary law required to institute a tax on large fortunes.
  • Article 153 of the 1988 Constitution assigns the Union authority to create the levy by complementary law, yet no implementing statute has been enacted in 35 years.
  • PSOL’s lawyer, Bruna Freitas do Amaral, argued that prolonged inaction sustains a regressive tax structure and that instituting the levy serves constitutional goals of social justice and poverty eradication.
  • A prior vote by former rapporteur Marco Aurélio Mello recognized congressional omission but declined to set a legislative deadline, citing limits on judicial intervention.
  • After procedural shifts that included a destaque by Minister Gilmar Mendes and its later withdrawal, President Edson Fachin kept the case on the plenary agenda, with the trial scheduled to continue on October 29.