STF judges whether or not to accept the return of the Union Tax

With the Labor Reform approved in 2017, still during the government of Michel Temer (MDB), the so-called Trade Union Tax was practically extinguished, no longer having mandatory payment.

Prior to that, millions of unionized workers had the tax deducted from their paychecks every month.

Since the extinction of the Union Tax, many unions have been sustained through voluntary contributions from a few workers who accept to make the contribution.

As a counterpoint to the extinction of the tax, entities and trade unionists from all over the country filed lawsuits in the Federal Supreme Court (STF), demanding the return of the tax collection.

Currently, Minister Gilmar Mendes is responsible for reporting one of the projects, which foresees not only the return of the Union Tax, but also the change of its name and the form of collection.

The possibility of tax return meets resistance

Until April of this year, Gilmar Mendes had an opinion against the return of the Union Tax. However, according to sources linked to the STF, the minister started to consider voting for the return of the tribute, which has generated a great buzz in Brasilia.

According to preliminary information, Mendes now defends that the collection of the tax, which would become call Assistance Contribution to Unions, be made optionally and not compulsory, as it was before.

However, the Federal Constitution provides that workers do not have the right to choose a union to join. Thus, in practice, it would be unfeasible to refuse payment of the new Union Tax.

In addition, the refusal to contribute would have to be done formally, via documentation proven by a notary.

In Brazil, unionization takes place by region. That is, instead of having a single class body for all workers in a given profession, there are several unions with the same functionality, each in its region and acting independently.

Because of this, in 2016 there were no less than 11 thousand unions in Brazil, not counting Federations, Associations, Confederations and Union Centers.

Together, these entities received more than R$ 3 billion in taxes every year, without being required to account for the amounts collected.

According to experts, the possible return of the Union Tax represents a setback for a large part of the country's working class, since millions of taxpayers are not covered by any Syndicate.

the counterpoint

Some trade unionists manifested themselves to make a counterpoint to the criticism that the possible return of the Trade Union Tax has been suffering.

Among them is the executive director of the ABC Metallurgist Union, Luiz Carlos da Silva Dias, the Luizão, who denies similarities between the former Trade Union Tax and the Assistance Contribution to Unions.

“The welfare contribution cannot be confused with the union contribution or tax,” he said.

Luizão also said that the Assistance Contribution to Unions already exists, but it was never obligatory, being, according to him, a “conquest for the workers”. “It was never obligatory and was always set in terms of achievements for workers,” he said.

The trade unionist also said that the Trade Union Tax has always been opposed by the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT) and that the current judgment on the matter does not revoke the 2017 Labor Reform, nor does it make mandatory the payment of any tax.

“The union tax, historically opposed by the Union and the CUT, is no longer mandatory as of the 2017 labor reform. The judgment in question is not capable of changing any point of the labor reform, such as making the tax mandatory, and nothing affects the lives of metallurgists and metallurgists in the ABC region”, he concluded.

Graduated in History and Human Resources Technology. Passionate about writing, today he lives the dream of acting professionally as a Content Writer for the Web, writing articles in different niches and different formats.