A (in)constitucionalidade da renúncia fiscal em favor de igrejas na perspectiva da laicidade do Estado

Abstract

The present work has the general objective of answering the following question: is the tax waiver granted in favor of churches (un)constitutional, in light of the secularity of the State? As for the specific objectives, they are the following: (1) investigate the secular nature of the Brazilian State as its structuring principle; (2) investigate the historical constitutional treatment of secularism; (3) investigate the cases of tax waiver; (4) investigate tax immunity in the constitutional text and also the tax waiver granted to certain churches. In order to fulfill the established objectives, the investigation presented here proceeds on a methodologically guided path through bibliographic and jurisprudential research. The taken path makes it possible to confirm the research hypotheses: (1) the Brazilian State is secular, in such a way that it cannot benefit, support and subsidize, in any aspect, certain churches, in order to treat all of them with equality and maintain religious freedom ; (2) the Brazilian State has been increasingly involved with certain religions, as evidenced by the large number of religious parliamentarians in the composition of the Congress, which generates interlocutions between the interests of these parliamentarians and matters of State, and there is, therefore, a great openness to granting benefits to certain churches, openness that violates the principle of secularism in the State. [resumo fornecido pelo autor]