According to the IRS, the tax burden - weight of taxes on the economy - jumped more than 10 percentage points after the Real Plan.

The currency's stability brought costs to the taxpayer. Necessary to bring down inflation, the fiscal adjustment resulted in an increase in taxes. According to the IRS, the tax burden - weight of taxes on the economy - jumped more than 10 percentage points after the Real Plan. From 25,72% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 1993, the year prior to the plan, the indicator rose to 35,85% in 2012, the most recent data.

To balance public accounts, the federal government created and increased taxes in the years following the creation of the real. The highlight was social contributions, whose revenues are all with the Federal Government. The main ones are Social Contribution on Net Income (Cofins), PIS, Pasep and the Provisional Contribution on Financial Transactions (CPMF), which taxed financial transactions until 2007. Voracity over taxpayers, however, highlight experts, punished the poorest sections of the population and did not result in improved public services.

resident of the Brazilian Institute of Planning and Taxation (IBPT), João Eloi Olenike says that the real accentuated a trend started with the 1988 Constitution, which allowed governments (federal, state and municipal) to obtain more and more resources by increasing tributes. For him, the biggest problem is that taxation in Brazil is concentrated on consumption and wages.

With a regressive character, taxation on consumption punishes the poorest because the rates are levied on the final price of products. For merchandise that costs R $ 5 and has a 20% rate, the consumer will pay R $ 1 in taxes, regardless of social class. Proportionally, the amount weighs more in the pocket of the poorest. With direct payroll deductions, taxation on wages taxes workers, not entrepreneurs.

“Today, in Brazil, we don't have a tax policy so that there is a tax collection according to the contribution capacity of each citizen. Yes, there is a tax collection policy. The more I collect, the better ”, criticizes Olenike. He advocates a tax reform carried out in stages that shifts the focus from taxation to profit and equity, which have the greatest impact on the wealthiest sections of the population. “Today there is no interest in making tax reform. If more and more is collected, why do tax reform? ”, He asks.

In 2012, taxes on consumption and wages corresponded to 76,26% of the collection, according to the IRS. In the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group that brings together developed nations, the average corresponded to 58,35% in 2011. Taxation on income and wealth amounted to 21,69% of the collection in Brazil, against 38,27% of the OECD.

For Cláudio Damasceno, president of the National Union of Tax Auditors of the Federal Revenue (Sindifisco Nacional), the distortions in the Brazilian tax system persist because, until today, big capital defines the direction of tax policy. “We have a first world load and a third world return on the services that the government ends up offering to the population. Since the creation of the real, little has changed ”, he comments.

Damasceno cites the 61% lag in the correction of the Income Tax table and the exemption in the distribution of profits and dividends to partners and shareholders as measures that have worsened the Brazilian tax system for the lower income population in the last 20 years. “In developed countries, the tax on assets is much higher. This discrepancy has deep roots ”, he says.

Despite the increase in the tax burden in the last two decades, the IRS does not consider the weight of taxes on the economy high in relation to other countries. According to the body, Brazil is in an intermediate position in comparison with the 27 OECD countries. In addition, the IRS informs that some countries like Chile, whose tax burden amounts to 21,8% of GDP, do not have Social Security.

The Economic Policy Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance claims that the net tax burden, which deducts from taxes collected the return to society through subsidies and income transfers, has remained virtually stable in recent years, rising from 18,39% in 2002 (oldest data available) to 19,82% in 2012. According to the secretariat, the net tax burden is more important than the gross tax because it considers government returns, which increase private sector disposable income and the well-being of people. families.

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