Os Impactos Econômicos da CPMF: Teoria e Evidência

This paper aims to study the economic impacts of the CPMF in the Brazilian economy and was divided in three parts. In the first part, the CPMF is analyzed under the scope of the economic theory. In the second part, the international experience with taxes similar to the CPMF is discussed. At the end, the Brazilian experience is analyzed, considering the contributions of the two previous parts. According to the economic theory, the CPMF should increase real interest rates unproportionally to other taxes, as a result of the inclusion of asset turnover in its incidence base. This conceptual deficiency would negatively affect, unproportionally to its tax collection, the level of capital, production and wages. It would also cause the increase of government expenditures through interest payments, implying a fictious amount of revenues. The CPMF would cause disintermediation and illiquidity in the financial markets, hindering the resurgence of credit in Brazil. The tax collection would follow a Laffer curve, with high deadweight losses, particularly when compared to its small revenue. Empirical results confirm that those conclusions would be valid in the Brazilian case. The economic theory, the international experience and the Brazilian evidence reveal, therefore, that the CPMF presents significant inefficiencies as a tax collection instrument.