The taxation of urban property in Brazil: a study on the deterioration of municipal finance

Abstract

This paper relates the vicissitudes of the normative model of Brazilian federalism and the financial crisis that plagues the Brazilian municipalities, considering the centralizing parameters adopted in the constitutional distribution of tax bases. After explaining the confluence between the financial problems of the Municipalities and the insufficiency of own revenues, the paper addresses the impact that the poor use of the progressive potential of the IPTU, especially with the outdated calculation elements, generates in the capacity of tax collection capacity of local subnational entities.