The government (PT) recorded the highest tax burden in history in 2025, the National Treasury announced this Friday (April 10, 2026). It rose from 32.2% in 2024 to 32.4% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) last year. Here are the full texts of (PDF – 594 kB) and (PDF – 546 kB).
According to the document, the federal government’s tax burden rose to 21.6% of GDP. It had been 20.6% at the end of the government (PL), in 2022. The percentage of state governments fell from 8.5% to 8.4% in the period. The tax burden of municipalities increased from 2.2% in 2022 to 2.4%.
From 2024 to 2025, the federal government’s tax burden increased by 0.3 percentage points. Of the States, it fell 0.1 percentage point. It remained stable in the municipalities.
According to the National Treasury, the increase in the tax burden was mainly driven by the higher collection of IRRF (Income Tax Withheld at Source), with an increase of 0.23 percentage points of GDP. The economic team stated that the increase reflects the growth in the wage bill.
The IOF (Tax on Financial Operations) also contributed to the increase in the tax burden in 2025. It had an impact of 0.10 percentage points.
The Lula government taxes to achieve the primary result targets in the accounts. With the growth in public spending, the economic team headed by the former Minister of Finance (PT) increased revenue with new charges and rates.
According to the government, the measures were adopted for tax justice. The government started to charge, according to Haddad, those people and companies that did not pay taxes.
The measures continue to take effect in 2026. The IOF, for example, enabled growth of more than 40% in . Data from the National Treasury show that government expenses totaled 18.8% of GDP in 2025, compared to 18% in 2022.
