The article discusses how tax evasion and tax competition jeopardize free competition between companies. Focusing on the Brazilian experience, it shows that the country is not a major player in international tax competition, but that there is a ferocious tax war between Brazilian States and Municipalities. The article describes the two main examples of this internal tax competition and presents some of the still unresolved juridical problems it causes. Then, the article puts light on the contradictory Brazilian approach to tax fraud (including piracy): hard financial and criminal penalties, but a permanent possibility of full amnesty through payment. The conclusion is that the principle of free and equal competition between companies will not be guaranted in Brazil until discriminatory tax benefits are proscribed and until tax evasion ceases to be a relatively safe harbour.
Intertax