A Tribute to Patriarchy

Abstract

Departing from a dialogue between critical tax theory and the new fiscal sociology, this article finds a peculiar kind of gender-based discrimination, which takes place in Brazilian tax legislation. The interpretation of data concerning Brazilian income tax on alimony, under the light of the norms about tax imposition or exoneration related to the matter – which seems to compromise even the permanent austerity agenda that defines the country's fiscal regime – suggests that the State could be renouncing to revenues in order to achieve the single effect of submitting women to a higher burden when compared to man, and to foster a familiar arrangement in which men should be divorced and exempted of their offspring's caring duties, while women that are mothers of children or teenagers should be married to their fathers