TAX BURDEN PROGRESSIVITY ANALYSIS ON THE BRAZIL SOUTHERN POPULATION

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to present a study of current tax burden distribution in the Southern states of Brazil. For this, it was used the model developed in the doctoral thesis “A carga tributária no Brasil e sua distribuição” by José Adrian Pintos Payeras. The database is composed by Household Budgeting Survey (POF) 2008-2009 microdata, considering the tax regulations of the country and southern states. The Lerman-Yitzhaki index shows that the direct tax burden is progressive, when taken into account the per capita household income ordering. However, municipal tax on properties (IPTU) is regressive. Indirect taxes are regressive when taking from both: the income and the monetary expenditure base. ICMS (value added tax) has increased participation in the indirect tax burden and the most regressive is the Cofins (Social Security Financing). The comparative analysis of studies based on POF 2002-2003 with the present study showed that there was a slight increase in the average indirect tax burden in the Brazilian Southern region.