The Seven Stages Of Informational Fiscal Imperialism: the extraction-valorization-displacement circuit in the Brazilian digital balance of payments (2015–2024)

Abstract

This article formalizes the circuit of informational fiscal imperialism into seven analytical stages, from data extraction in peripheral territories to the expanded reproduction of global inequalities, and demonstrates its concrete operation in the Brazilian case using balance of payments data (BCB, 2015-2024). The reading is organized along the three bases of the IM Model (extraction, valorization, and consumption), articulating the information-commodity category (Nunes, 2025; 2026) with dependency theory (Marini, 1973), structural power (Strange, 1988), and the analysis of the international tax regime (OECD, 2021; Hudson, 2021). Results show: a growing deficit in the digital components of the balance of payments (intellectual property services up 58% in 2024), a 323% increase in profit and royalty remittances from major platforms between 2014 and 2024, and regulatory capture documented in the institutional trajectory of Redata. The article identifies the most effective point of tax intervention between the fourth and fifth stages of the circuit, before fiscal displacement neutralizes the tax base generated in the territory.