Flat-rate consumption tax is subject of webinar

The Applied Legal Research Coordination Area (CPJA) at Fundação Getulio Vargas’ Sao Paulo Law School is holding a free online debate called “A Flat-Rate Tax on Consumption.” This public event will be livestreamed on FGV’s YouTube channel on April 28, at 10 am.

The proposal to adopt a single rate in Brazil has been criticized as it is argued that different rates could benefit the poorest people. However, the international literature and empirical research carried out abroad indicate the opposite. They show that setting different rates is not the best way to benefit the poorest.

This is due to four main reasons:

1. Lower rates affect both the poorest and wealthiest people, and the latter tend to consume more goods with reduced or zero rates, in absolute terms;
2. Lower rates make the tax system more complex, leading to litigation that impairs the functioning of the system as a whole;
3. The ability to set lower rates incentivizes lobbying to favor special interests;
4. Reductions in tax rates are not normally passed on in full to consumers in the form of lower prices.

In this context, the event will present the results of a research project that looked at the international literature and then sought to evaluate the fourth point above. Considering a set of products that experienced a reduction in the rate of Tax on Circulation of Goods and Services (ICMS), the researchers examined whether, and to what extent, this reduction was subsequently passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices.

Program of activities:

Opening remarks and presentation of study

• Leonel Cesarino Pessoa, professor and researcher, FGV Sao Paulo Law School
• Mauricio Canêdo Pinheiro, professor, Rio de Janeiro State University
• Melina Rocha, course director, York University, Canada

Debaters

• Rozane Bezerra de Siqueira, professor of economics, Pernambuco Federal University
• Rodrigo Orair, director, Brazilian government’s Tax Reform Secretariat, and researcher at Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA)
• Enlinson Mattos, professor, Sao Paulo School of Economics (FGV EESP)
• Vanessa Rahal Canado, coordinator of law graduate courses and Center for Tax Research at Insper, a higher education institute in Sao Paulo

To take part, please sign up here.