Os impactos da reforma tributária sobre a autonomia municipal no federalismo brasileiro

Abstract

This study analyzes the impacts of Constitutional Amendment No. 132/2023 on the financial autonomy of Brazilian municipalities within the context of national fiscal federalism. It starts from the premise that the 1988 Constitution grants municipalities a position of formal symmetry within the Federation, even though this legal equality coexists with historically consolidated fiscal asymmetries among local entities. The research, of an applied, explanatory and qualitative nature, developed through the deductive method, examines the foundations of Brazilian federalism and municipal financial autonomy based on three complementary dimensions: the capacity to raise own revenue, participation in revenue from other entities, and the availability of resources for the exercise of constitutional competences. It then systematizes the main changes introduced by the tax reform in the collection and distribution of revenue, highlighting the creation of the Tax on Goods and Services (IBS), the establishment of the IBS Management Committee, and the new criteria for revenue sharing with municipalities. Based on this framework, the study analyzes the effects of these changes on municipal financial autonomy, finding that the reform reduces municipalities' regulatory autonomy over the main tax within their exclusive competence, while formally expanding their participation in the management of the new tax system. It is further verified that the redistributive mechanisms established by the amendment produce only a partial effect on municipal fiscal inequalities, since the main compensation instruments created by the reform do not provide for direct transfers to municipal entities. It is concluded that Constitutional Amendment No. 132/2023 improves certain revenue collection and distribution mechanisms without, however, consistently addressing fiscal inequalities among Brazilian municipalities, so that the tension between the formal federative symmetry assured by the Constitution and the materially persistent fiscal asymmetries remains present after the reform.