Federal Revenue projects R$ 17.2 billion in tax collection on dividends

The Federal Revenue Service projected this Friday (24) that the tax collection related to Income Tax on dividends should reach R$ 17.2 billion throughout this year. The amount is considerably below the R$ 28 billion that had been originally estimated in the Federal Budget, as detailed in the Bimonthly Revenue and Expenditure Assessment Report.

The new taxation on dividends was implemented with the goal of compensating for the loss of revenue generated by the expansion of the Income Tax exemption bracket for taxpayers earning up to R$ 5,000 per month. However, performance in the first half of the year was lower than expected, with collection totaling only R$ 2.2 billion between January and June.

According to Claudemir Malaquias, head of the Center for Tax and Customs Studies at the Federal Revenue, the expectation is that the tax authority will be able to collect another R$ 15 billion between July and December. The difference between the projected value and the initial estimate represents a shortfall of approximately R$ 10.8 billion for the public coffers.

Despite the performance falling short of expectations for this specific source, the Minister of Planning and Budget, Bruno Moretti, stated that it is still premature to revise fiscal projections. According to the minister, the behavior of this revenue is not linear, and the government will wait for new data in the next report to make definitive decisions.

Moretti highlighted that other sources of tax revenue have exceeded expectations and are helping to balance the accounts. He noted that the total estimated Income Tax collection grew by R$ 12.7 billion between the May and July reports, which provides security for meeting the fiscal target.

Currently, the government projects a primary surplus of R$ 10.8 billion for this year, a value that remains within the tolerance band of the established fiscal target. The central primary result target is a surplus of R$ 34.3 billion, which is equivalent to 0.25% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

It is worth remembering that the taxation on dividends for individuals was set at 10%, both for residents in Brazil and for remittances abroad, maintaining the exemption only for amounts up to R$ 50,000 per month from the same company.