Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) assumed his third term as President of the Republic in early January, 20 years after having climbed the Planalto Palace ramp for the first time, with the challenge of building a broad front in Congress that guarantees him governance for the next four years. Elected on November 30, in the second round, with 50.9% of the valid votes against 49.1% for Jair Bolsonaro (PL), a difference of 2.1 million votes, Lula reaches the highest post in the Executive Branch.
A few days after the new president took power, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad announced a series of measures with the aim of reversing the primary deficit of R$ 231 billion estimated for the federal government’s accounts in 2023. Listed below are some of the announced measures
Interministerial ordinance
Ordinance between the Ministries of Finance, Planning and Management provides for the renegotiation of contracts and programs under the direct administration of the Executive Branch.
Interministerial ordinance
Establishes the Zero Litigation Program for defaulting individuals, micro and small companies, with the intention of renegotiating and paying debts.
Interministerial Ordinance No. 26, published at the beginning of January, changed the values of employees' social security contributions.
With the National Consumer Price Index (INPC) accumulated at 5.93%, as disclosed by the ordinance, and the minimum wage at BRL 1,302.00, it is already possible to calculate the payroll.
Check below the social security contribution table used as a basis for making the calculations.
| Salary in BRL | Applied rate (%) |
| From 0 to 1.302,00 | 7,5 |
| From 1.302,01 to 2.571,29 | 9 |
| From 2.571,30 to 3.856,94 | 12 |
| From 3.856,95 to 7.507,49 | 14 |
The income report is a statement of earnings received over a calendar year that summarizes earnings for the previous year. The document must be sent by the organizations until February 28th. The report contains the amounts received and the balances in the period. In general, these numbers are presented cumulatively, including tax discounts.
Taxpayers can receive the document from different paying sources, such as companies, investment brokers, banks and the National Institute of Social Security (INSS), if applicable.
The income report is essential to comply with obligations such as the Individual Income Tax Declaration (DIRPF).
In Brazil, unemployment reached 8.7 million workers in the quarter between September and November 2022, a drop of 8.1% compared to the previous three months, according to the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (PNAD Contínua) released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
This index is the lowest since the quarter ended in April 2015, when the rate was 8%.
The survey also reveals a 0.9% decline in the unemployment rate compared to the June-August 2022 quarter, when it hit 8.9% and 3.5% compared to the same period in 2021 (11.6%). Consequently, the number of unemployed persons decreased by 9.8% compared to the previous quarter and 29.5% in the annual comparison.
On January 1st, 2023, the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) revoked the decree that reduced the tax rates paid by large companies by half.
The reduction in taxes could have an impact of R$ 5.8 billion on revenues in the first year of the PT's administration. Therefore, the revocation was already expected.
The decree of former president Jair Bolsonaro, published in an extra edition of the Official Gazette on December 30th, 2022, halved the rates of Social Integration Programme and the contribution for the financing of social security (PIS/Cofins) on the financial income of companies that adopt the non-cumulative regime to collect contributions. In general, only large companies opt for this modality.
Non-cumulative regime companies pay a 9.65% PIS/Cofins rate on their revenues. However, this percentage drops to 4.65% when it comes to financial income — obtained with income from investments in the market, such as fixed income securities, in addition to interest charged from suppliers or discounts obtained by companies.
With the Bolsonaro government's decree, the rate would be reduced to 2.33% as of January 1, 2023. Even with the revocation, some impact should be felt by the Lula government. This is because an increase in PIS and Cofins rates only takes effect 90 days after the publication of the act. It is worth mentioning the existence of legal uncertainty that came with the revocation of this decree, since there is a lot of discussion on different decisions about when it should really be valid, whether for 2023 or for 2024 onwards.
It is worth mentioning the existence of legal uncertainty that came with the revocation of this decree, since there is a lot of discussion on different decisions about when it should really be valid, whether for 2023 or for 2024 onwards.
