CORRECTED - OFFICIAL-UPDATE 1-Brazil to tax savings accounts

(Finance ministry corrects level below which Selic rate must fall for savings accounts to start being taxed to 10.5 percent from 10.25 percent, paragraph 5)

* Brazil to tax returns on savings above 50,000 reais

* Change to take effect in 2010 if Selic below 10.5 pct

* To cut taxes on gov't bonds if rates fall in 2009

* Measures aim to enable interest rates to fall further (Adds details, comments and context)

BRASILIA, May 13 (Reuters) - Brazil will begin charging income tax in 2010 on returns from savings accounts with deposits of more than 50,000 reais (about $24,000) to avoid a flight from government bonds and enable interest rates to fall further, Finance Minister Guido Mantega said on Wednesday.

With the central bank's benchmark Selic rate at an all-time low and likely to keep falling, the government is trying to prevent an exodus from higher-yielding domestic bonds to tax-free savings accounts, which could make it difficult for the government to finance the national debt.

"The measures aim to discourage large investors from migrating to a mechanism that is designed for individual depositors, to prevent it from being distorted," Mantega said at a news conference in Brasilia, the country's capital.

"We don't want to transform savings accounts into a mechanism of financial speculation," he added. "What we want is to create conditions so that the Selic rate keeps falling."