As well as being extremely complex, taxes in Brazil are the highest in South America, which makes cross-border relationships difficult, and are among the highest in the world. Annual federal tax revenue has risen 130% from R$78.496 billion in 2002 to R$180.519 billion in 2008, according to studies by the National Confederation of Municipalities. The recent World Bank report: DOING BUSINESS 2010, confirms that it is Brazilian businessmen and women that work the most in the world to pay their taxes, clocking up an average of 2,600 hours a year, but these facts are always ignored in any modification of the tax law and tax collection system. In an electoral year, the Government forgets that, even with its high approval rating and popularity of the President, 54% of the population disapproved of Lula’s fiscal policy in 2009, according to an opinion poll conducted by Ibope.
Dr. Édison Freitas de Siqueira
President of the Study Institute for Contributors’ Rights
