Does the Supreme Court intend to assume the powers of a typical tax policy body?

Abstract

The article aims to study as its problem the possible determination of the Federal Supreme Court to exercise – indirectly – typical roles of a tax policy body. Methodology of the article consists of analyzing a recent precedent of Federal Supreme Court (RE 723.651) regarding the constitutionality of the industrialized products tax incidence on imports of equipment to be used by persons that do not perform industrial activities (like individuals, hospitals etc). Reasoning and decisions of each one of the justices are analyzed in order to investigate if the court has fixed its precedent in a juridically consistent manner, and if the court is conscious that it could be unduly advancing through a range of competence that is beyond its legal and institutional capacities (judicial activism). The article concludes that the, at least in the case examined, the Federal Supreme Court is conscious of the risks of its actuation, and has an erroneous comprehension about what judicial minimalism really is; by insisting on a wrong application of the judicial minimalism doctrine, the Court tends to act like a body that formulates tax policy.