Fiscal federalism in Brazil: An overview

Although the states and municipalities that comprise the Brazilian Federation have considerable autonomy in raising their own tax income and spending public funds, this is not the outcome of a planned decentralization process. The improvement in fiscal indicators at the subnational-government level since the promulgation of the Fiscal Responsibility Act has made a major contribution to the success of the country’s macroeconomic stabilization policy. Nonetheless, the Federation is seen as a major stumbling block for reform of the tax system. As a contribution to the debate on federative balance in the division of fiscal responsibilities, this paper makes a diagnostic study of the federative framework and recent institutional changes, and proposes a new federative agenda.