Through the judgment of Themes 881 and 885 of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), which occurred in the context of general repercussion, the following thesis was established: “The decisions of the STF in incidental review of constitutionality, prior to the institution of the regime of general repercussion, do not automatically impact the res judicata that has been formed, even in tax legal relationships of successive treatment. 2. Decisions handed down in direct action or in the context of general repercussion automatically interrupt the temporal effects of final decisions in these relationships, respecting non-retroactivity, annual prior notice and ninety or ninety-day prior notice, depending on the nature of the tax.”
This means that a definitive decision, the so-called “res judicata”, on taxes collected on an ongoing basis, that is, those whose collection is renewed periodically, loses its effects if the Court rules otherwise, given that the judges were guided by the understanding that a decision produces its effects as long as the factual and legal framework that justified it persists, and if there are changes in this scenario, the decision may be modified.
In the case of taxes levied in a single manner, the decision handed down by the STF will have no scope whatsoever, and a final and binding decision cannot be overturned.
The Supreme Federal Court (STF) held that in the case of ongoing tax relations, a previous decision deeming a tax unconstitutional loses its effectiveness after a Supreme Federal Court ruling recognizing its validity. This makes resumption of payment mandatory, starting with the Supreme Federal Court ruling that determines payment is mandatory, and the effects of the decision may be modulated.
