Tax and administrative reforms are priorities, says Brazil’s Economy Minister

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Economy Minister Paulo Guedes on Tuesday, May 4, stressed that tax and administrative reforms are government priorities that only had their advance interrupted because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“They are indeed priorities, the tax and administrative reforms, which were in our government program’s natural sequence. I was even challenged here: ‘oh, you said you were going to deliver the tax reform some time ago, but you didn’t’. Well, Covid came and disorganized everything.”

“Now we are ready to resume it, and we are going to. The Chamber’s president (Arthur Lira) has said that we are going to resume the tax reform. The president of the republic (Jair Bolsonaro), too, he is now emphasizing this, so let’s go,” Guedes said in a public hearing of a set of committees in the Chamber of Deputies.

In the case of taxation, Guedes said he favored ending the creation of legal entities, classifying it as a “sophisticated” way to pay fewer taxes. He also addressed dividend taxation.

“We want to reduce corporate tax. We will lower this one. (…) It sent money abroad to shareholders, stock owners; they must pay taxes. Nowadays, they pay nothing”, Guedes reiterated, adding that non-taxation of dividends is wrong.

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