On February 18th, 2016, Brazil’s Supreme Court – STF – decided to change its own precedents, allowing banks to supply the Federal Revenue Service with information about financial transactions made by taxpayers, without the prior approval of a judicial authority, thus making the provisions of Supplementary Law No. 105/2001 constitutional.
The decision in itself is not considered surprising, since it is in line with global trends. Brazil has undertaken, by means of international treaties, to exchange information that, strictly speaking, would be considered confidential, with many countries without any kind of authorization.
The G20 itself, which congregates the leaders of the world’s twenty most developed greatest global economies, is avidly campaigning against bank secrecy. Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Singapore are cooperating with this campaign, and have already become parties to international conventions that give greater flexibility to the rules governing the exchange of information among contracting its countries, to be removed from the so-called “grey list”.
All such measures envisage greater international transparency, thus avoiding tax evasion and asset laundering.
Although viewed by some as an improvement, the fact remains that the Supreme Court’s decision creates legal uncertainty since it ignores constitutional rules that are not subject to contemplation, the fundamental liberties and constitutional guarantees of all citizens, granted in Article 5, XII of the Federal Constitution (the country’s highest ranking law), in particular the inviolability of secrecy of data, without the due process of law within Congress to change constitutional provisions.
The Federal Constitution, although some may not consider to be ideal, is a rigid document governing all Brazilian legal provisions, and, thus, must be complied with and respected.