Tributação e meio ambiente: A extrafiscalidade como veículo indutor do desenvolvimento sustentável no Brasil

Abstract

The environmental crisis that humanity is experiencing indicates the pressing need for effective preservation of the environment. Article 225 of the Brazilian Federal Constitution imposes not only the fundamental right to a balanced environment, but, above all, the duty of all, the government and the community, to act in its defense and preservation. With the 1988 Constitution, the environment is no longer considered a legal asset of extrinsic value to acquire autonomy, having intrinsic value. Thus, the idea of sustainability ends up redefining the notion of development because there is no development apart from the environmental issue, since the defense of the environment as a principle of the economic order ends with the utilitarian notion that nature only serves interests economical. In this sense, it is clear that taxes can, through extrafiscality, contribute to guaranteeing and enforcing constitutionally guaranteed social and environmental rights. This study aims to understand extrafiscality as a vehicle that induces sustainable development in Brazil. It is important to analyze how extrafiscality has been shown to be efficient in harmonizing economic and environmental interests, when using taxes as legal instruments aimed at environmental protection. The role played by the State in the implementation of fiscal policies to protect the environment is highlighted, through the inclusion, in the Brazilian tax system, of the environmental accent.