The cost of federal taxation

Abstract

There is an aspect in taxation which has not called the attention of researchers: its operational cost, that is, the costs the fiscal administration and taxpayers incur to have taxes paid and to comply with the bureaucratic aspects of taxation. It has already been calculated that the compliance costs of taxation correspond to 0.75% of GDP in average listed companies and can be as high as 5.82% of GDP in companies with less than R$ 100 million in sales per year. This paper deals with another operational cost of taxation: the costs the Brazilian Federal Administration has to administer federal taxation. We present a survey of the costs in other countries and in Brazil, attempting to picture the taxation costs incurred by different federal administrative entities. The survey shows that the public administration faces great difficulties to adequately control its accounts and that there is lack of uniformity and transparency. Another aspect is the fact that the Government is involved in more than 90% of judicial processes, being the main responsible for delays in federal courts. The administrative costs of taxation correspond to 1.35% of tax revenues and 0.36% of GDP. The total of operating costs of taxation correspond to 1.11% of GDP or R$ 16.8 billion. Finally, we propose measures to improve the system and reduce its costs.