JUE 28 DE MARZO DE 2024 - 18:28hs.
Justice

Rio de Janeiro City Hall, Jockey Club and the US$ 250 million battle to tax racing bets

The City of Rio de Janeiro went to court to charge the ISS (Service Tax) on horse racing bets. At stake, about R$ 1 billion (S$ 250m). In Rio TJ, the city attorney's office won the fight. The Jockey Club appealed, and the case ended up in the STF, according to journalist Ancelmo Gois in his blog on O Globo. In 2014, the JCB obtained an injunction in the Federal Supreme Court to suspend enforcement of the ISS on ‘pules’ (horse betting).

The decision came from Minister Gilmar Mendes, arguing that horse racing betting is not a service. Now the City of Rio de Janeiro has decided to resume the issue to try to charge the ISS.

"The urgency of the precautionary claim, in turn, is justified in view of the impending patrimonial constraint to which the plaintiff is subject, due to the tax executions proposed against him," said the minister at the time, in the Precautionary Action (AC) 3,752. Thus, Mendes granted suspensive effect to Extraordinary Appeal (EA) 634.764, in which the Jockey challenges the decision of the Court of the State of Rio de Janeiro that had confirmed, in the appeal judgment, the enforceability of the tax.

In his decision, the rapporteur recalled that the EA filed by the Brazilian Jockey Club had the general repercussion recognized by the STF in February 2014 and that the arguments brought in the injunction justify the granting of the suspensive effect. He stressed that the case law of the Supreme Court provides that the granting of suspensive effect to extraordinary appeals should only occur in exceptional situations, where the legal plausibility of the issue discussed in the appeal and the danger of irreparable or difficult reparation damage arising from of the contested decision.

Source: GMB