Federal revenue began 2022 maintaining the double-digit advance recorded in previous months. The result reached R$ 235.3 billion in January, which represents a real growth of 18.3% in relation to a year earlier.
This is the best result for the month in the historical series, which started in 1995. According to the Federal Revenue, the data stem from the improvement in the economy compared to a year ago — with more sales in services, higher dollar value of imports and better situation of companies.
Charged based on the performance of the companies, the IRPJ (Corporate Income Tax) and the CSLL (Social Contribution on Net Income) registered a real growth of 32% and reached R$ 84 billion in January.
The main contributors to IRPJ and CSLL are financial entities and mining companies. Then there are wholesale trade, retail trade and metallurgical companies.
Of the total IRPJ and CSLL, R$ 12 billion are considered extraordinary by the Federal Revenue due to declarations of adjustments by companies in last year’s figures. These changes can be informed by the companies until March.
Removing the extraordinary amount, the increase in revenues managed by the Revenue would be milder and would fall in the annual comparison from 14.6% to 9.1%. Despite this, the total result would remain a record.
Another item that boosted the January data was the PIS/Cofins – which advanced 8%, to R$ 36.4 billion. The Revenue says that the variation stems from factors such as the higher collection with non-financial companies, especially the fuel sector, and the higher value of imports.
The oil market has also given significant help to government accounts. The so-called revenues managed by other bodies, which mainly include oil and gas royalties, almost doubled (an increase of 92.5% in real terms). The federal coffers obtained R$ 17.9 billion with this item in January.
“We had an appreciation of the barrel of oil. Since these shares are calculated based on the price, this is reflected in the collection”, says Claudemir Malaquias, head of the Tax and Customs Studies Center of the Revenue.
Brent oil futures, which soared 50% in 2021, rose by another 14% in 2022, at seven-year highs of around US$89 (R$489) per barrel. The advance could be about to sharpen with the prospect of more than $100 a barrel oil amid tensions in Ukraine.
Federal data were also benefited, albeit to a lesser extent, by the increase in IOF (Tax on Financial Operations) rates on credit. The tax was under the effects of an exemption in January 2021 and was charged by the government at the end of the year. As a result, tax revenue grew 92% in real terms in January, to R$4.6 billion.
On the other hand, the collection with the IRPF (Individual Income Tax) dropped. The retraction was 29.8%, to R$ 2.7 billion. According to the Revenue, the data is distorted because the last IRPF quota, referring to the 2019 adjustment, was made in January 2021 – which boosted the numbers last year.
The growth in federal revenues has been used by Minister Paulo Guedes (Economy) as a justification for tax cut measures, such as the 25% reduction in the IPI (Tax on Industrialized Products), which can cost BRL 20 billion for public coffers.
“This excess revenue is not to inflate the machine again. We prefer to transform this revenue gain into tax reduction for millions of Brazilians”, said Guedes last Tuesday (22).
The numbers follow a pace observed last year, when the Federal Revenue recorded a record collection of R$ 1.8 trillion. The result represented a real increase of 17.3% compared to 2020 – the year most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite this, economists have argued that the improvement is influenced by inflation. Although the result of revenues is corrected by the IPCA (Ample National Consumer Price Index), a good part of the numbers escapes this adjustment. Inflation for 2021 was just over 10%, but gasoline prices, for example, rose 47.49%.
In addition, measures such as tax cuts should, together with the growth of expenses this year, deepen the deficit in public accounts in 2022. The government’s latest projection is that the year will end with a deficit of R$ 76.2 billion, but the estimate does not include the tax reductions under discussion.
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