Got a bank account in Brazil? Beware "Big Brother" is watching.

The Federal Constitution of 1988 Art. 5, X and XII are supposed to guarantee, as inviolable individual rights, the secrecy of banking information.

Art. 5º Todos são iguais perante a lei, sem distinção de qualquer natureza, garantindo-se aos brasileiros e aos estrangeiros residentes no País a inviolabilidade do direito à vida, à liberdade, à igualdade, à segurança e à propriedade, nos termos seguintes:

X - são invioláveis a intimidade, a vida privada, a honra e a imagem das pessoas, assegurado o direito a indenização pelo dano material ou moral decorrente de sua violação;

XII - e inviolável o sigilo da correspondência e das comunicações telegráficas, de dados e das comunicações telefônicas, salvo, no último caso, por ordem judicial, nas hipóteses e na forma que a lei estabelecer para fins de investigação criminal ou instrução processual penal; (Vide Lei nº 9.296, de 1996)

Well, that's not exactly how the Receita Federal sees things and starting this year Instrução Normativa 1.571 will enter into effect and compell all Brazilian financial institutions to inform the Receita when an individual conducts any transaction greater than R$2000, or a business entity R$6000, in any given month. This is not only a gross invasion of privacy, but also clearly violates the Constitution and goes against all previous Federal Supreme Court decisions that the term "data" clearly embraces banking data. STF Min. Marco Aurélio in court decision, MS 21729-4, judged on 05/10/95, published on 10/10/95 DJ, stated that "in final analysis I hold that bank secrecy is under the protection of the provisions in sections X and XII of Article 5 of the Federal Constitution. "

The Constitution is quite clear that the only way that secrecy can be broken is by means of a Court Order. Not even the Receita Federal can simply violate banking secrecy at their whim, but that is exactly what they intend to do anyway. It also violates Art. 5 in that it creates a distinction between a person and a business, which is essentially embodied with all the rights of a natural person, so should be no different in any way. Setting a limit of R$6000 for a business violates that Constitutional concept of equality.

So what does this mean in practical terms? Well, for example, if you rent an apartment for which you also pay condominium fees and in most cases this would mean writing a check for more than R$2000 the Receita Federal will be informed about that check every month. If you make a deposit, withdrawal or transfer greater than R$2000 the Receita will be informed. If you purchase a 40in. flat screen TV and pay by check or debit card, the Receita will know about it. Essentially your monthly statement is going to be an open book to them. You could be summoned to justify or explain the source or destination of any of those transactions.

There are presently 3 actions before the Federal Supreme Court, but have as yet been unheard. These challenges have been put forward by the Confederação Nacional do Comércio (CNC), do Partido Social Liberal (PSL) and the Confederação Nacional da Indústria (CNI).

We'll just have to wait to see how things turn out, but clearly this country is far from being a democracy when even the government and its institutions do not obey the Federal Constitution.

Cheers,
James
expat.com Experts Team