In the film With Other People’s Money, Danny DeVito plays Larry the Liquidator, an investor who buys struggling companies, promises salvation, and ultimately liquidates assets to generate immediate profit. The workers? They become invisible victims of financial “efficiency.” The image is uncomfortable—and, paradoxically, useful to understand the spirit of Bill 1087/2025.

This bill, approved on November 5, expands income tax exemption for those earning up to R$5,000 per month. The measure has been sold as an act of fiscal justice and relief for the middle class. However, the cost of this governmental benevolence is paid through the creation of new taxes on profits and dividends. The narrative is simple: “those who earn more pay more.” But tax reality is rarely that linear.

Just like Larry, who offers hope while preparing liquidation, the bill promises relief but shifts the burden to investors, entrepreneurs, and self-employed professionals who receive distributed income. The change breaks nearly three decades of stability and may generate significant side effects: reduced investments, corporate reorganizations, higher costs, and legal uncertainty.

In practice, the government gives with one hand and takes with the other. The immediate relief to the taxpayer base is offset by taxing flows essential to business financing, job creation, and economic growth. If the revenue from the new rules does not reach the expected level, the consequences will fall on taxpayers themselves—now in another form, less visible and more diffuse.

Bill 1087 risks repeating the film’s logic: offering a narrative of benefit while transferring the cost to those who produce, invest, and sustain the system.