Resumo:A behavioural analysis of the distributional impacts of tax policy and public spending shows that the Brazilian tax system has remained quite regressive, and, as an innovation, there have been gains, some quite significant, in the progressivity of social spending. While, in 2003, the progressivity of social spending moderately compensated for the regressivity of the tax system, in 2009, with the increase in social spending and the deepening of its progressivity, its distributional effects have overcome the concentrating impact of collection. (…)