Only 20% of Brazilians are against taxing big fortunes, study finds

Brasil de Fato

Only 20% of Brazilians are against taxing big fortunes, according to the study “The working classes”, produced by the Center for the Analysis of Brazilian Society (CASB, in Portuguese), whose preliminary data were recently released to the press. The full report will be published on Friday (9).

The study found that 53% support the taxation, 20% are against it, 16% of the interviewees neither agree nor disagree, and 12% don’t have an opinion on the matter or didn’t answer the question. Among Bolsonaro supporters, who is against the taxation, 40% agree with the measure, 20% neither agree nor disagree, 33% disagree, and 9% don’t know what to think about it or didn’t answer the question.

Another topic also presented to the 4,017 workers aged 18-55 interviewed for the study was agrarian reform. Data shows that 40% of Brazilians agree with it, 20% neither agree nor disagree, 27% disagree, and 13% didn’t answer the question.

Despite Brazil’s Constitution determining the taxation of the super-rich according to a complementary law, after 36 years the measure is still to be implemented. Since 2008, there has been a bill in the National Congress to create a law to tax big fortunes. The text has been waiting to be analyzed by the plenary since 2012.

Other similar bills were presented, but all were joined by the first proposal. The 2008 bill, authored by then federal deputy Luciana Genro (Socialism and Freedom Party), determines that individuals with a fortune of more than BRL 2 million (around US$ 355,000) should be taxed.

According to data collected by the “Tax the Super Rich” campaign, which brings together around 70 organizations, 59,000 people in Brazil have assets that exceed BRL 10 million (more than US$ 1,77 million), which represents 0.028% of Brazil’s population. With this tax, according to the movement, it would be possible to raise approximately BRL 40 billion (more than US$ 7,109 billion) a year.

The campaign proposes that within five years of the tax’s implementation, the tax rates of 0.5%, 1% and 1.5% should be raised to 1%, 2% and 3%, respectively, on the following asset ranges: above BRL 10 million up to BRL 40 million; above BRL 40 million, up to BRL 80 million (around US$ 14,200 million); and above BRL 80 million.