There is no less unequal country without income redistribution. There is no application of effective anti-racist public policies that does not presuppose a redistribution of income, says the editorialist. This October we will celebrate the 35th anniversary of our Constitution, which is still in force. Promulgated in 1988, the new Constitution was celebrated with enthusiasm by a significant part of the Brazilian population, as it marked the end of more than two decades of military dictatorship in Brazil, a period in which a series of rights were systematically violated and democracy she was left behind, suspended.
The desire for citizen democracy organizes several points of the Constitution, in an openly progressive proposal (albeit Brazilian style). And there in the seventh paragraph of article 153, which deals with the taxes due to the Union, it says: “large assets, in the terms of complementary law”.
That’s right, Brazil’s largest and most important social and political contract provided for the collection of taxes on large fortunes, through the formulation of complementary and future laws. It turns out that the future never arrived.
More than three decades have passed and the possible collection of taxes on large fortunes – which exists in several countries considered to be first world, that is – generates a series of heated debates, but is not effective on a legal or practical level.
The recent debate over tax reform has once again brought to light the possibility of taxing the country’s large fortunes – a scale that has not even been measured, considering that understanding what the initial limit of these large fortunes would be can vary from a wealth from 2 million, according to a Complementary Bill (PLP) presented in 2008, to over 50 million, as foreseen in a 2020 PLP.
But the fact is that this tax would apply to a small portion of the population, less than 1%. There are several tax proposals, however, in versions that defend progressive rates, calculations indicate that revenues could reach up to R$40 billion per year.
40 billion represents almost 25% of the budget of the Ministry of Education which, according to the Transparency Portal, will have expected expenses in the order of 180 billion in 2023. Imagine the difference this money would make if well invested in education or public health Brazilian?
Anti-racist taxation
For those who defend the creation and application of the tax on large fortunes (IGF), there is an important argument to be made: the frequent unproductivity of these fortunes. And here it is worth remembering: these are the fortunes of individuals, not of companies or industries – a dimension that must be taken into account even in the face of biased arguments that claim that, if implemented, the tax will generate “capital flight”.
But there is another fundamental aspect in the defense of the taxation of large estates: the possibility that it be conceived and applied from an anti-racist perspective. After all, who are the Brazilian billionaires? With very few exceptions, they are white men who, despite possible personal and familial efforts, have navigated the many levels of privilege that the white population has enjoyed and continues to enjoy.
It is necessary to remember that for a long time the country’s greatest fortunes were directly linked to the African slave trade and the enslavement of these people and their descendants. The relationship is of such intensity that it was difficult for a wealthy nineteenth-century family not to own slaves (generally owners of hundreds of them). However, starting in the mid-1830s, large numbers of enslaved Africans in Brazil were in this condition illegally, under Brazilian laws. In other words, a significant part of the fortunes accumulated in the 19th century were created illegally. And this does not seem to be a moral problem for anyone, because those who pay for this illegality are those who continue to pay the price (and also taxes that are often disproportionate to their income): the black population.
Even though the wheels of the Brazilian economy changed with the abolition of slavery (1888) and the proclamation of the Republic (1889), we cannot escape the fact that being rich continues to be an almost exclusive privilege of whites. And here I prefer to spare myself meritocratic discussions that have no analytical density.
There is no less unequal country without income redistribution. There is no application of effective anti-racist public policies that do not presuppose the redistribution of income. Don’t lose sight of this aspect.
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Master and doctorate in Social History at USP, Ynaê Lopes dos Santos is professor of History of the Americas at UFF. She is the author of the books Além da Senzala. Slave Quarter Agreements in Rio de Janeiro (Hucitec 2010), History of Africa and Afro-Descendant Brazil (Pallas, 2017), Juliano Moreira: Black Doctor in the Founding of Psychiatry in Brazil (EDUFF, 2020), and Brazilian Racism: a story of the country’s formation (Todavia, 2022), and also responsible for the Instagram profile @nossos_passos_vem_de_longe.
The text reflects the opinion of the author, not necessarily that of DW.
Source: Terra
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