Webinar: Dividends Levy as per the New Bill in Brazil and the Riddle of Fair Taxation

(Please note that registration closes 1 hour prior to the event starting time)

The Brazilian government submitted to Congress, on March 18th, 2025, Bill No. 1,087/25, proposing significant changes to income tax rules. In short, it raises the exemption threshold while, to allegedly balance the resulting revenue loss, imposes progressive minimum tax rates on individuals falling in the high-income category and revives the withholding tax on dividends, abolished in 1995.

Such dividends taxation, at a rate of 10%, applies in full to non-resident beneficiaries and only above a certain limit for natural persons resident in Brazil. For both cases, the bill creates intricate mechanisms aiming at limiting the overall tax burden to the aggregate amount of this 10% rate plus the maximum corporate income rates falling on the legal entity that pays the dividend, pending further regulations.  

Swiftly nicknamed the “Robin Hood Tax,” its supporters claim that the proposed changes shall benefit low-income taxpayers by increasing disposable income, stimulating demand in commerce and services, with a projected boost in households’ consumption, in tandem with reduction in inequality.

Conversely, the bill raises concerns when considered in the context of the Brazilian tax system, given the applicable rates for individuals and corporations, the virtual adoption of revenue as income tax base and the very high consumption taxes. Let alone the complexity and required compliance costs to try and mitigate the double economic taxation of the same income earned by the entity distributing profits, vis a vis the overall tax burden limitation scheme that hinders both domestic and foreign productive investment if not effective.

Please join us on-line on April 16th to watch renowned tax specialists unravel the proposed changes, ready to clarify any doubts, contrasting the opposing perspectives outlined above and debating its suitability and timeliness in the current Brazilian conjunctural scenario, business environment, and fiscal justice goals.

When: April 16, 2025, at 1:30pm (UK) / 9:30am (Brazil)
Online platform: Microsoft Teams
Duration: 60 minutes

Programme:

1:30pm – Opening
- Vera Innes, Chair of the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain

1:35pm – Features of the new dividends tax as proposed
- Luiz Felipe Centeno Ferraz, tax partner at Mattos Filho Advogados

1:55pm – Analysis of potential impacts on investment
- Fabio Gaspar, Brazil Tax Director at Shell and Vice-Chair of the Tax Committee of the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in GB

2:15pm – Q&A Session
- On-line participants will be able to submit written questions via Teams platform

2:25pm – Closing
- Gustavo Braga, founding partner at BBSA – Braga & Bastos Soc. Adv. and Head of the Tax Committee of the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in GB

2:30pm – Finish