IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/gluwps/96401.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A long way from tax justice: the Brazilian case

Author

Listed:
  • Lavinas, Lena
  • Moellmann Ferro, Thiago Andrade

Abstract

This paper presents the major characteristics of the Brazilian tax system, after underlining the modifications it went through since 1988, when the country adopted a new and democratic Constitution. One important feature is the marked incidence of indirect consumer and production taxes (49% of all tax revenues) in place of direct taxes on income, inheritance, and capital gains. This imbalance between indirect and direct taxes explains, in large part, the elevated regressivity of the Brazilian tax system, which both expresses and reproduces the profound inequalities that characterize Brazilian society.

Suggested Citation

  • Lavinas, Lena & Moellmann Ferro, Thiago Andrade, 2014. "A long way from tax justice: the Brazilian case," GLU Working Papers 22, Global Labour University (GLU).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:gluwps:96401
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/96401/1/glu-wp_no-22.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Karla Breceda & Jamele Rigolini & Jaime Saavedra, 2009. "Latin America and the Social Contract: Patterns of Social Spending and Taxation," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 35(4), pages 721-748, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Barrientos, Armando, 2011. "On the Distributional Implications of Social Protection Reforms in Latin America," WIDER Working Paper Series 069, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Nora Lustig & Florencia Amábile & Marisa Bucheli & George Gray Molina & Sean Higgins & Miguel Jaramillo & Wilson Jiménez Pozo & Veronica Paz Arauco & Claudiney Pereira & Carola Pessino & Máximo Rossi , 2014. "El impacto del sistema tributario y del gasto social sobre la desigualdad y la pobreza en Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, México, Perú y Uruguay: Un panorama general," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 1313S, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    3. Nora Lustig, 2011. "Fiscal policy and income redistribution in Latin America: Challenging the conventional wisdom," Working Papers 227, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    4. Lustig, Nora & Gray Molina, George & Higgins, Sean & Jaramillo, Miguel & Jiménez, Wilson & Paz, Verónica & Pereira, Claudiney & Pessino, Carola & Scott, John & Yáñez, Ernesto, 2012. "The impact of taxes and social spending on inequality and poverty in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico and Peru: a synthesis of results," Research Department working papers 234, CAF Development Bank Of Latinamerica.
    5. Nora Lustig & Rodrigo Aranda, 2015. "El Impacto de los Impuestos y las Transferencias en la Pobreza y la Desigualdad Rural-Urbana en Bolivia, Brasil, Guatemala, México y Perú," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 32, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    6. Nora Lustig & Florencia Amábile & Marisa Bucheli & George Gray Molina & Sean Higgins & Miguel Jaramillo & Wilson Jiménez Pozo & Veronica Paz Arauco & Claudiney Pereira & Carola Pessino & Máximo Rossi , 2014. "El impacto del sistema tributario y del gasto social sobre la desigualdad y la pobreza en Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, México, Perú y Uruguay: Un panorama general," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 13S, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    7. Sara Torregrosa Hetland, 2015. "Did democracy bring redistribution? Insights from the Spanish tax system, 1960–90," European Review of Economic History, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 294-315.
    8. Cuesta, Jose & Kabaso, Pamela & Suarez-Becerra, Pablo, 2012. "How pro-poor and progressive is social spending in Zambia ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6052, The World Bank.
    9. Nora Lustig, 2020. "Inequality and Social Policy in Latin America," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 94, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    10. Nora Lustig, 2016. "El Impacto del Sistema Tributario y el Gasto Social en la Distribución del Ingreso y la Pobreza en América Latina: Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatema," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 1337, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    11. Giovanni Andrea Cornia & Juan Carlos Gómez-Sabaini & Bruno Martorano, 2012. "A New Fiscal Pact, Tax Policy Changes and Income Inequality," Working Papers - Economics wp2012_03.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    12. World Bank, 2010. "Uruguay - Equality of Opportunity : Achievements and Challenges," World Bank Publications - Reports 2985, The World Bank Group.
    13. Nora Lustig, 2011. "Commitment to Equity Assessment (CEQ). A diagnostic framework to assess governments’ fiscal policies. Handbook," Working Papers 212, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    14. Marisa Bucheli & Maximo Rossi & Florencia Amábile, 2018. "Inequality and fiscal policies in Uruguay by race," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(3), pages 389-411, September.
    15. Meseguer, Covadonga & Kemmerling, Achim, 2016. "What do you fear? Anti-immigrant sentiment in Latin America," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 66302, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Froemel, Maren & Paczos, Wojtek, 2024. "Imperfect financial markets and the cyclicality of social spending," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    17. José Cuesta & Lucia Madrigal, 2014. "Equity in Education Expenditure in Thailand," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 32(2), pages 239-258, March.
    18. Lustig, Nora, 2017. "El impacto del sistema tributario y el gasto social en la distribución del ingreso y la pobreza en América Latina. Una aplicación del marco metodológico del proyecto Compromiso con la Equidad (CEQ)," El Trimestre Económico, Fondo de Cultura Económica, vol. 0(335), pages .493-568, julio-sep.
    19. Nora Lustig & Florencia Amábile & Marisa Bucheli & George Gray Molina & Sean Higgins & Miguel Jaramillo & Wilson Jiménez Pozo & Veronica Paz Arauco & Claudiney Pereira & Carola Pessino & Máximo Rossi , 2014. "El impacto del sistema tributario y del gasto social sobre la desigualdad y la pobreza en Argentina, Bolivia, Brasil, México, Perú y Uruguay: Un panorama general," Commitment to Equity (CEQ) Working Paper Series 1313S, Tulane University, Department of Economics.
    20. Marcus André Melo & Armando Barrientos & André Canuto Coelho, 2014. "Taxation, redistribution and the social contract in Brazil," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series iriba_wp11, GDI, The University of Manchester.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:gluwps:96401. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://global-labour-university.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.