Brazil has scrapped plans to introduce a 15% tax on player deposits after the country’s Senate threw out the clause.
The anti-faction bill, created last December to fight organised crime, was approved on Tuesday night, 24 February, but saw the deposit tax removed.
The bill is now on its way to receive presidential approval and will offer some respite for Brazil-facing operators fearing an increased tax burden.
A letter to the chamber of deputies from member Luiz Antônio de Souza Teixeira Júnior called for the removal of the proposal from the bill.
According to a transcript of the session seen by Brazilian financial newspaper Valor Econômico, House of Representatives speaker Hugo Motta said the player deposit tax was excluded so “the text can be voted on without the wider disagreements of the previous vote”.
However, its removal was criticised by Communist Party member Jandira Feghali, who argued during the session that “we need to prevent this amendment from being approved”, while deputy Lindbergh Farais claimed the tax would have generated BRL30bn (£4.1bn).
During the session in the Senate, Federal deputy Reimont said: “I wanted to say that it would be a shame if we, here today, come out with this project easing the taxes on betting.”
Alongside the tax on player deposits, the decision was made to also remove the retrospective tax on pre-regulation earnings, which would have seen operators that were live in the grey market between 2018 and 2024 pay 15% retroactively.
As it stands, operators face a 12% tax on GGR, with plans in place to increase it to 15% by 2028.
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The post Brazil scraps 15% tax on player deposits plan first appeared on EGR Intel.
Members of the Senate criticise removal of gambling taxation, with accusations of MPs being in the “hands of the betting companies”
The post Brazil scraps 15% tax on player deposits plan first appeared on EGR Intel.