By Jamie McGeever
BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s federal tax revenue rose in February to its highest on record for that month, the revenue service said on Monday, boosted by strong growth in corporate taxes and firms’ social contributions on net profits.
The tax take last month totaled 127.75 billion reais ($23.1 bln), up 4.3% in real terms on the same month last year and slightly more than the 124.9 billion reais median forecast in a Reuters poll of economists.
It took the total tax take for the first two months of the year to 308 billion, up 0.8% in real terms from a year ago, just before the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and also the highest since the data series began in 2000, the revenue service said.
Economy Minister Paulo Guedes had said in recent days that the Jan-Feb total would be higher than last year, an indication of the strength of Brazil’s economic recovery from the worst of the crisis in April-May last year.
Corporate income taxes and company social contributions on profits in February totaled 24 billion reais, the revenue service said, up 40% in real terms from the same month last year.
Payments into the social contribution fund known as “PIS/Pasep” and the “Cofins” social security levy rose 2.2% in real terms to 27.1 billion reais in February, the revenue service said.
($1 = 5.52 reais)
(Reporting by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Chris Reese and Dan Grebler)
