The Federal Supreme Court recognized the general repercussion of the discussion involving the levy of the Contribution to the Social Security Funding (COFINS) and the Employees' Profit Participation Program (PIS) charged on revenues earned from leases, including real estate owned by the company. The matter will be heard within Extraordinary Appeal no. 599.658.
Justice Luiz Fux, reporting on the case, viewed it was necessary to recognize the general repercussion so that the Supreme Court can have a more uniform position on the matter, since there are decisions both for and against the levy on the mentioned revenues. According to him, "the submission of the matter to the Full Court is required, mainly in order to avoid conflicting decisions on this topic".
Furthermore, he affirmed that this subject has been the focus of constant debates at the Supreme Court, in which the issue of the PIS and COFINS' levy referring to financial institutions and insurers is currently under discussion (RE no. 609.096 and RE no. 400.4479-AgR, respectively). He also added that "once the matter is being heard by the Court with regard to insurers and financial institutions, the discussion needs to be extended to real estate-rental companies as well, especially those that lease their own property, mainly because of the case laws of this Court, which adopted the position that lease activities do not involve the rendering of services, but an obligation to give, therefore they are not subject to Service Tax (ISSQN) (Binding Precedent no. 31)".
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