Brazil’s Supreme Court Maintains Restoration of Social Tax

Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court April 30 moved to resolve a lengthy dispute over the restoration of its 20% employer social tax for some industries in favor of restoring the tax.

The tax was first eliminated for 17 industries in 2011 and was replaced by a fee set from 1% to 4.5% of an employer’s gross revenues. The industries represent Brazil’s largest employers with a total of 9 million employees. For the government of the time and its supporters in Congress, the objective of this substitution was to help these companies increase their hiring.

This arrangement was periodically extended by votes ...