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The month of December traditionally brings together the largest volume of remittances abroad each year due to the closing of company balance sheets. To give you an idea, in 2024, resources sent totaled $8.8 billion over this period, which represents 20% of last year’s total. This year, that figure is up to 30% higher.
Currently, there is no income tax on distributed profits and dividends. This treatment will change next year. Income obtained through the distribution of profits exceeding R$50,000 per month will be taxed at source at 10%. In addition, dividends will be part of the income calculation in order to check whether the taxpayer is eligible for minimum tax in the annual declaration.
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The law, however, allows for the exemption of dividends relating to profits made from 2025 and whose distribution is decided by the end of this year, even if they can be paid until 2028. As a result, companies are rushing to avoid tax, thus reinforcing capital outflows.
— It’s completely natural. The figures are higher than in previous years – said Pinto. Another source in the economic field corroborated the information of the resigning secretary, emphasizing that the volume of dividends sent outside Brazil is the worst in four decades and that the movement in the last week of November was the highest in the historical series — said Fernando Haddad’s secretary.
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Marcos Pinto points out, however, that a large part of the distribution of company resources to their shareholders is carried out via interest on equity (JCP), the tax of which is already withheld at source. According to the secretary, Federal Revenue calculations project a 50% reduction in dividend distribution next year.
For the secretary, even with the race to distribute results between companies, the collection of dividends will be very significant in 2026.
Leaving the portfolio after three years, the secretary defended that the country faces a deeper debate in the future on the taxation of companies in matters of income tax, seeking to reduce differentiated regimes and exceptions, as is the case for presumed profit and simple ones.
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In this sense, he affirms, the discussion on the reduction of tax advantages would already be a first step in this direction, with a 10% increase in the basis for calculating the presumed profit – under discussion in Congress –, of which the average income tax rate is around 16%. For companies generally taxed on real profits, the nominal rate is 34%.
— I think we can have a lower nominal rate for everyone, provided we have a more uniform tax system — he said. — In Brazil, we can have a rate for developed countries of 20, 25%. But for that to happen, we’ll need to make big strides to eliminate advantages that some people get and others don’t.
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