PERSONAL INCOME TAX PROGRESSIVENESS IN BRAZIL: REALITY OR MYTH?

Abstract

This paper aims to demonstrate the low implementation level of tax equality and economic capacity principles in Brazil, from a progressiveness perspective. The analyses sets national constitutional and legal texts relating to income tax, as well as some case law and legal doctrines as the main theoretical foundations. It’s concluded that there is a low level of progressiveness in the incidence of the personal income tax, because of a favorable and a not progressive treatment of the capital income. Besides that, historical data demonstrate the mitigation of this attribute due to the reduction of the amount of taxable income lines and the difference between the maximum and the minimum tax rates.