Facts First: Felipe d’Avila is right when he says that Brazilians work 5 months a year to pay taxes

The presidential candidate for the Novo, Felipe d’Avila, said that Brazilians work five months of the year “just to pay their taxes”. The political scientist also said in a Twitter post on March 18 that Brazil has the “14th highest tax burden in the world” and the “second highest in Latin America”.

According to data from the São Paulo Commercial Association (ACSP), Brazilian citizens work, on average, 149 days a year to pay their taxes, the equivalent of about five months.

On the other hand, the 2019 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report, the most recent on the subject, ranks Brazil as the 29th largest tax burden on the planet.

What did d’Avila say?

“Bringing this tax burden into everyday life, it is as if Brazilians worked five months of the year just to pay their taxes. Aggravating factor: Brazil mainly taxes consumption. This makes the tax system regressive, harming the poorest. Brazil has the 14th highest tax burden in the world: 33.1%. In Latin America, we are second only to Cuba, which has an exorbitant 42% load. Yes… We charge more taxes even than Venezuela”.

Luiz Felipe d’Avila, in a post on Twitter, on March 18

Taxes x Days worked

A survey by ACSP points out that, in 2021, Brazilians worked an average of 149 days – that is, almost five months – to pay their taxes.

If we consider previous years, however, the trend is for a decrease in terms of days worked to pay taxes: there were 153 days, on average, from 2016 to 2019. In 2020, the number dropped to 151.

Consumption taxation

A 2019 OECD report indicates that Brazil is the 18th country that most taxes goods and services in the world: 14.2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Meanwhile, in OECD member countries, the average is 10.8% of GDP.

The vice president of tax studies at the National Association of Tax Auditors of the Federal Revenue (Anfip), Cesar Roxo, said in an interview with CNN, in 2021, in agreement with Felipe d’Avila, that the tax on goods and services makes the system more regressive and harms the poorest population.

“The fair tax system has to be progressive, as is the Income Tax, in which the rate increases according to the taxpayer’s income. In consumption, you can’t do that. Everyone pays the same tax on a product, and the higher the income, the lower the burden of that tax,” he said.

Tax Burden

Regarding the statement that Brazil has the 14th highest tax burden in the world, collecting an amount equivalent to 33.1% of its GDP, the pre-candidate for Novo is partially correct. In a 2019 OECD report, the country appears with 33.1%, but in 29th position.

Cuba is the only Latin American nation that is above Brazil in the ranking. The Caribbean country charges the equivalent of 42% of its GDP in taxes.

Brazil, however, shares the second place in Latin America with Barbados, which also collects 33.1% of its GDP. On the other hand, Venezuela, which according to the pre-candidate charges less taxes than Brazil, collected 14.2% of GDP at the time of the last OECD assessment of the country, in 2013. After that, the agency no longer had access to the data that would allow an assessment of the Venezuelan tax burden.