Corporate and tax structures in Brazilian higher education

Brazilian higher education has been growing considerably in the past few years.  This paper’s main objective is to present, through secondary data analysis, the Brazilian higher education general context in terms of its geographical, corporate and tax variables. So, we are able to evaluate the current situation and suggest a new strategic positioning as well as business and public policies. In this context, the Brazilian higher education institutions (HEIs) can have three basic configurations, that is: colleges, higher education centers and universities.  Analyzing the corporate aspects of the data, we can see that the Brazilian higher education system is centered mainly on private colleges. It also is important to state that the tax situation is very complex for the HEIs in Brazil. There are several tax configurations, so the institutions can find several opportunities to generate savings for them and for the State, through resignation or tax immunity situations related to the participation in programs that help develop higher education in Brazil, such as PROUNI (a government program that allows students to go to private institutions with a full or partial scholarship). Understanding corporate and tax issues of Brazilian HEIs, under its quantitative characteristics, is relevant because such information is not consolidated by the current government information sources. Therefore, this study contributes providing an integrated understanding of the structural, geographical, corporate and tax variables of HEIs in Brazil. Finally, it is important to emphasize that the purpose of this paper is limited to a quantitative survey of HEIs, in terms of their corporate structures and tax variables, allowing us to identify opportunities to be analyzed by public officials on the establishment of new public policies, and private managers to make business decisions.