SEFAZ-MG Auditor Fiscal common mistakes
SEFAZ-MG Auditor Fiscal · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Answering interpretation questions from memory of the text's general topic instead of returning to the exact passage to verify what the author actually asserts, so that plausible but unsupported statements are marked correct.
The exam's texts are long and the time per item is short, so candidates skim, form a global impression, and then accept any alternative that is consistent with that impression rather than with the specific lines cited.
What to do instead
For every item, locate and underline the passage that decides the answer before reading the alternatives, and reject any option containing information the passage does not state, even if it is true in general.
Treating 'mas', 'porém', 'embora', 'visto que' and 'portanto' as interchangeable connectors, so questions on semantic relations between clauses are answered by ear rather than by the logical relation expressed.
Everyday speech blurs concession, opposition and conclusion; candidates read for content and skip the connective, which is usually the single word the item is testing.
What to do instead
Build a short table mapping each connective to its relation (opposition, concession, cause, conclusion, purpose) and, on each item, rewrite the sentence substituting the proposed connector to test whether the logical relation survives.
Solving percentage, ratio and rate problems by applying operations to the numbers in the order they appear in the statement, without first writing the algebraic relation between the quantities.
Word problems in tax and finance contexts are deliberately wrapped in narrative; the habit of 'following the story' leads to adding rates that should be multiplied or applying a percentage to the wrong base.
What to do instead
Before calculating, write the defining equation with named variables and identify which quantity is the base; then substitute. Check the answer's order of magnitude against the statement.
Confusing the constitutional remedy or instrument with the right it protects, for example attributing to habeas data the function of mandado de segurança or treating ação popular as available to protect a diffuse right without the citizenship requirement.
Remedies are studied as a list with similar wording; under time pressure the candidate matches on keywords such as 'informação' or 'direito líquido e certo' without checking the constitutional requirements.
What to do instead
For each of the five remédios, memorise three anchors: the right protected, the legitimidade ativa, and the gratuitousness or not. Rehearse by classifying short fact patterns rather than reciting definitions.
Applying the general administrative-law rule to a situation governed by an express constitutional exception, such as treating all administrative acts as subject to the same prazo decadencial or ignoring that the Administration's self-review power is limited by the act that has already generated a favourable right.
Candidates study the statute and the Constitution separately and never reconcile them, so the more specific norm is forgotten when the question is framed in general terms.
What to do instead
Maintain a one-page list of express constitutional rules that override the general regime (prazo for annulment, súmula vinculante effects, liability of the State) and review it before any administrative-law block.
Classifying a tax by its name or by who physically pays it instead of by its legal criterion, so that a tax on a transaction is treated as indirect merely because the burden is passed on, and substituição tributária is confused with responsabilidade solidária.
The classification vocabulary (incidência, fato gerador, contribuinte, responsável) is learned in isolation; items exploit the gap between economic incidence and legal incidence.
What to do instead
For each tax studied, write four lines: hipótese de incidência, contribuinte legal, responsável, and base de cálculo. Classify only from those four elements, never from the label.
Answering ICMS items from the general constitutional text while ignoring the specific state rule on benefit, credit or substitution, or applying a federal norm where the Minas Gerais statute or regulation provides otherwise.
The ICMS is governed by the Constitution, the complementary law and the state law simultaneously; candidates revise the first two and treat the state legislation as detail, which is exactly where the item is decided.
What to do instead
Study each ICMS theme in the fixed order Constituição, Lei Kandir, lei estadual, regulamento, and note where the state rule adds a condition or an exception. Practise items by identifying which of the four layers controls.
Recording an accounting entry by its cash effect rather than by the accrual regime, or recognising revenue when the invoice is issued rather than when the performance obligation is satisfied.
The candidate's intuition is cash-based, and the exam statements often mention payment dates precisely to distract from the competence date.
What to do instead
For every transaction, state the competência date, the accounts debited and credited, and the effect on the balance sheet before choosing an alternative; verify that debits equal credits.
Confusing the objective of the audit with the procedures used, so that an item describing an inspection or a confirmation is answered as if it defined the scope of the work or the type of opinion.
Procedures, assertions and opinions are learned as parallel lists; items deliberately describe a procedure and ask for the assertion it supports.
What to do instead
Map each procedure to the assertion it addresses (existência, integridade, avaliação, direitos e obrigações, apresentação) and each finding to the opinion it produces, and rehearse that mapping on short scenarios.
Selecting among fiscal-policy or public-finance alternatives by political preference or by the label 'expansionist' rather than by working through the effect on the primary result, the debt and the multiplier.
The concepts are abstract and the candidate recalls a headline conclusion without the mechanism, so a change in the assumption (open versus closed economy, fixed versus floating exchange rate) is not noticed.
What to do instead
For each item, write the assumption set first (exchange regime, mobility of capital, position in the cycle), then derive the effect step by step; reject any alternative whose conclusion does not follow from those assumptions.