Voted text allows deduction of donation to funds for childrens and teenagers from Income Tax

On Tuesday (2), the Chamber approved the bill 1627/07, from the Executive Power, which creates the National System for Social-Educational Assistance (Sinase), and regulates the applicable measures in case of misdemeanors committed by children and teenagers. That bill needs now to be voted by the House Floor.

The matter was approved as a substitution bill of a special committee, authored by Deputy Rita Camata (PMDB-ES). Specialized medical assistance to those young people, the evaluation of institutions and managers of the related system, and the guarantee of intimate visits to married teenagers or to those in sound relationships are among the changes made by her on the original bill.

Camata said that the substitution bill reflects ten years of debates on the regulation of the Children’s and Teenagers’ Act (ECA), and contributions of bodies related to that area. “There are currently about 40,000 teenagers in conflict with Law. They have been excluded from society, they haven’t had a family, or a father who would impose them limits. Sinase establishes that they pay for committed mistakes, but that they are also assisted by the government”, she affirmed.

The Social-Educational Assistance programs of Justice should be transferred to the Executive’s management in up to one year from the enactment of that future law. The transference of the confinement and semi-confinement to the responsibility of municipalities was also given the same term.

Financing
One of the ways to finance the new system is the one provided for in the amendment by Deputy Wilson (PT-GO), which was included by the rapporteur in negotiations with the IRS.

Individuals, who have to pay income tax at their yearly income tax return, can, instead of paying it to the IRS, deduce an equivalent percentage to the donation to the funds for the rights of children and teenagers. That deduction can be 1% of the determined tax in 2010, 2% in 2011, and 3% from 2012 on.

Those donations can be done in cash or goods. The receipts issued by the fund managers should contain data identifying goods and addresses by the appraisers. There are similar rules on donations by corporations.

Resources from the Social-Security budget and the possibility to use cash from the National Fund Against Drugs (Funad), from the National Fund for the Development of Education (FNDE), and from the Fund for the Worker’s Support (FAT) should also go to Sinase.

Individual Plan
That bill includes community services among the social-educational measures which can be imposed to the misdemeanant teenager. An Individual Assistance Plan (PIA) is created, which should be established by a technical team and especially designed for each child or teenager, with his and his family’s participation.

This plan should include, for instance, social-integration and professional-qualification activities; integration and support to families; and specific healthcare measures.

PIA should be applied in up to 45 days after the entry of the teenager in the assistance program. That term will be reduced to 15 days, if the imposed penalty is assisted freedom or community service.

According to Deputy Givaldo Carimbão (PSB-AL), the president of the special committee which reviewed the bill, the current system has reversed values. He reminded that an adult inmate costs R$1,800 per month to the penitentiary system, and that a child or teenager costs R$8,000. “It would be much cheaper to educate and qualify those teenagers, who also need substance-abuse treatments, since 96% of the confined ones are addicted to drugs”, he said.

Report - Eduardo Piovesan
Editing - João Pitella Junior
Translation - Positive Idiomas Ltda