Brazil Solons OK Tax Reform Overhaul

Brazil’s lower house has approved a major reform of the nation’s notoriously complicated tax system in a significant victory for leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who threw his weight behind the proposal, Eleonore Hughes reported for the Associated Press (AP).

The reform will “facilitate investment,” tweeted Lula, who celebrated the proposal’s approval late Friday and thanked Congress. I Photo: Lula Facebook

The long-awaited tax reform aims to simplify the system, widely considered overly burdensome for both individuals and businesses and boost economic growth that has drifted between downturns and doldrums for the last decade.

The reform will “facilitate investment,” tweeted Lula, who celebrated the proposal’s approval late Friday and thanked Congress.

The reform—initially approved by deputies in July—had to be voted on again after the Senate made changes to the text before sending it back to the lower house.

The constitutional amendment passed easily by greater than 3-to-1 margins in both rounds of voting. When results appeared on the giant television screen in Congress, lawmakers reacted with cheers and applause.

“After more than 40 years, the country will have a modern, lean, and efficient tax system that will change the country’s economy,” Speaker Arthur Lira tweeted, adding that it’s not “the perfect system, but one that can be approved.”

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