Extrafiscality and Regulation of the Economy: tax changes in Lula and Dilma governments

Abstract This article argues that from the second term of Lula (2007-2010), after the country achieved fiscal stability and due to the 2008 crisis, the orientation of fiscal and tax policy turns to international competitiveness and development of the country. Lula adopts "'countercyclical'" fiscal and monetary policies in order to recover the level of economic activity as quickly as possible. This change was made by modifications and introduction of new extrafiscal instruments of taxation, mainly through tax exemptions and tax reductions without, however, breaking with the principles of the previous paradigm, centered on economic and fiscal stabilization. Thus, such changes were made through modifications in the extrafiscal instruments of taxation following a process of institutional sedimentation.