Today: A Supreme Court ruling on tax dispute will cost the federal government billions in revenue. Pfizer executive details how the government deliberately stalled vaccine purchases. And the economic weight of Covid deaths.
Supreme Court sides with companies on tax imbroglio
In what was billed the “tax case of the century,” the Supreme Court dealt a crushing blow to the federal government, siding with companies on matters of overtaxation and causing the administration to miss out on billions in revenue. The decision ends a legal struggle dating back to 2007 — to properly explain the case, we need to rewind a little:
- In 2007, a trading company sued the government demanding that state goods and services tax ICMS be removed from the total used to calculate federal social security taxes PIS and Cofins.
- In 2017, the case reached the Supreme Court — and justices sided with the plaintiffs.
- To minimize revenue losses, the government asked for the ruling to be enforced this year, but an 8-3 vote on Thursday decided that its validity began in March 2017, also encompassing lawsuits filed prior to that date. Moreover, the court decided that the full total of ICMS must be...