INEQUALITY IN BRAZIL Income, Wealth and Tax Distribution The paper offers an introductory over­view of inequality in the largest national economy of Latin America, focusing on key dimensions such as income, wealth and tax distribution. The authors ex­plore Brazil’s multidimensional social in­equalities that have strong regional, gender and, most importantly, racial as­pects connected to historical social power relations and exploitation. The Brazilian tax system is markedly re­gressive. For instance, labour is dispro­portionately taxed in comparison to capital and the widespread use of con­sumption taxes disproportionately bur­dens low-income earners. The authors argue that a progressive tax reform should seek to eliminate such dispari­ties by reversing historical and institu­tional privileges granted to the rich by the state. They also point out the lack of data on wealth inequality and call for more transparency. The government of president Lula has promised to reform taxation of the su­per-rich and is being supported by civil society in an active campaign. A tax re­form that has begun to gain traction dur­ing Brazil’s temporary presidency of the G20 is the creation of a minimum global tax rate on billionaires. An excise tax of two per cent is estimated to generate al­most R$ 42 billion in taxes in a year. The authors point out that an excise tax greater than 2.5 per cent could even re­verse the pattern of strong regressivity of Brazil’s effective tax incidence on income beyond the top 1 per cent in the distribu­tion structure and return to the progres­sive pattern observed up until the richest 1 per cent of individuals. Further information on the topic can be found here: https://www.fes.de/themenportal-die-welt-gerecht-gestalten/ weltwirtschaft-und-unternehmensverantwortung/steuergerechtigkeit