Brazil to tax overseas profits, high incomes

Exempt income: Lula speaks during the launch of a programme to facilitate access to bank loans for workers in Brasilia. The government is seeing through the income tax exemption for individuals, one of Lula’s key moves to halt his sliding popularity. — AFP

BRASILIA: Brazil’s government will propose a 10% tax on corporate profits and dividends sent abroad to help offset revenue lost from an expanded tax exemption for individuals with lower incomes, two sources with knowledge of the matter say.

The measure would deal a blow to multinationals with subsidiaries in Brazil, which now benefit from exemptions on remittances under a 1995 corporate income tax law that the government is looking to amend.