The Education and Social Expenditure Tax: Origin, assumptions and functions of the deduction based on education expenditures in the Brazilian Income Tax.

• Grant number: 12/00511-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: May 01, 2012
• End date: November 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education
• Principal Investigator: Romualdo Luiz Portela de Oliveira
• Grantee: Caroline Falco Fernandes Valpassos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Educação (FE). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

There is a set of educational policies that brings out different ways of organizing, financing and managing a school system. In these policies, called School Choice, parents are delegated the responsibility of choosing a quality school while these policies aim to generate greater competition between schools in order to induce, by the principle of competition, the school quality. There are several types of these policies. The Tuition tax Credits is one of them. It refers to the possibility of income tax deductions for institutions, as well as for individuals, since they make donations to educational institutions, either public or private. This type of policy can be regarded as a free choice of schools due to the relationship between the payment system of scholarships and private funding for this tax exemption. Studying these policies model led me to realize that, in Brazil, although there is no deduction for direct promotion of private scholarships (unless the beneficiary is a dependent of the taxpayer), there is similar form of deduction of school instruction expenses. This form of deductions happens when individual tax payers declares expenses on education. This deduction allows annual expenditures for the payment of enrollment in private institutions, both the taxpayer as their dependents, are deducted from the amount owed to the IRS, which leads one to question whether this deduction fits the assumptions of these policies or presents different reasons and justifications, since it was instituted in 1965, while the school choice policies are yet to be implemented in Brazil. In this sense, the purpose of this research is to analyze the origins, assumptions and functions of this deduction, besides verifying, through a case study, the implications of this tax avoidance.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

VALPASSOS, Caroline Falco Fernandes. Education and the social tax expenditure: origin, assumptions, and the implications of the deduction of education expenditure in the income tax in Brasil. 2015. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Educação (FE/SBD) São Paulo.