Brazil: Revenue collection totals US$33.1 billion, a record amount for the month of March

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s federal tax collection in March 2022 totaled R$164.147 billion (US$33.1 billion), according to data from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It represents an advance of 6.92% compared to the same month last year, already discounting inflation in the period.

The data was released on Thursday by the tax authorities. Between January and March, the collection totaled R$548.1 billion, an increase of 11.08%, discounting inflation. According to the IRS, this is the best collection performance since 1995, both for the month and the quarter.

The strong performance for the month and the quarter is mainly explained by the strong collection of corporate income tax (IRPJ) and social contribution on net profit (CSLL). In March alone, there was an advance in collecting these taxes of 24.73% compared to the same month of the previous year, already discounting inflation. In the quarterly comparison, the growth was 22.91%.

STRUCTURAL INCREASE

Since 2021, the federal tax collection has been breaking records, and the government sustains that this increase is structural, although this is not a consensus among experts. The government relies on the increase in tax collection to reduce some taxes.

On April 27, the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, reaffirmed that all tax collection surplus would be transformed into tax cuts. He signaled the possibility of a new round of cuts in the tax rate on industrialized products (IPI). A 25% reduction, except for tobacco products, will take effect in May, and the government is studying a new 35% cut.

The import tax on coffee, margarine, cheese, pasta, soybean oil, and sugar has already been zeroed until the end of this year. The import tax on ethanol, mixed with gasoline and sold separately, has also been zeroed.

With information from O Globo