In colonial days, Brazilians consid ered it an act of patriotism to refuse to pay taxes to their Portuguese masters. Such patriotism dies hard. Last year, in fact, after 143 years of independence, more than half of Brazil's 200,000 self-employed doctors, lawyers, small busi nessmen and farmers still refused to file tax returns, and the government figures that 95% of those who did file cheated. Indeed, had it not been for the compulsory withholding taxes taken out of wage earners' paychecks, the gov ernment might well have used up its entire income tax receipts just to pay the salaries...
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