The Superior Court of Justice (STJ) has come to an unanimous decision, that the taxpayer who joined REFIS in 2009 should not pay attorney fees, according to Law 13.043/2014, which reopened the federal installment program. This decision can be still subject of an appeal.
Old contrary decisions were supported by Law 10.684/2003, regarding debt installment programs. Therefore, the argument was the 2003 law could not be applied to this case, because REFIS was established by subsequent legislation. Thus, Law 11.941/2009 changed the legislation about tax installment debits and exempted all taxpayers from paying attorney fees.
A favorable decision to taxpayers mentions the 2014 law, which expressly rejects the charge. The law came when the appeal was already in the Superior Court, for that reason its application was not in the request.
This law determines that the attorney fees and legal fees by defeated party are not due, in all lawsuits which may be canceled as a result of joining the installment payment programs, according to Law 11.941/2009. This procedure should also be applied to requests filed until July 10th, 2014 or are already filed, but not paid, until the same date.
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