Estrutura tributária brasileira: uma análise de seu impacto sobre a distribuição de renda

Abstract

While some studies in the Brazilian literature offer empirical evidence of the historic character of income concentration in the country, others establish a correlation between the design of the tax system and the inequality in income distribution. It is from this perspective that the present work aims to analyze – using data from the 2017/2018 POF (Household Budget Survey, in Portuguese) – the impact of the tax policy on income concentration, focusing on ten Brazilian states. The present work also aims to contribute to the debate on taxation and inequality, based on the hypothesis that inequality indicators may be explained through the regressivity of the tax system. In order to gauge regressivity and its impact on income distribution – measured by the Lerman-Yitzhaki and Gini indices, the methodology employed by Silveira (2008) and Pintos-Payeras (2010) is used. As a subsidiary goal, the present work also seeks to examine whether the combination of high marginal propensity to consume and regressivity results in a more substantial impact on income inequality. The results indicated both regressivity and the increase of inequality in all states – which is graphically confirmed by the tax concentration curve and by the distancing of the Lorenz curve in relation to the line of perfect equality. The investigation into whether inequality is raised by the higher marginal propensity to consume in the context of tax regressivity proved inconclusive. Given the Brazilian economic stalemate and the imminent global economic recession, structural aspects of income concentration in Brazil may accentuate poverty and inequality rates. It is understood that the tax system is an integral part of such persistent structural aspects and this is the reason why the present work proposes that there should be a tax reform of a progressive nature in Brazil.