Finance Minister: Brazil Will Soon Tax Online Sports Betting

BRAZIL (March 2, 2023) — Online sports betting taxation in Brazil will be the alternative to offset the loss of revenue with the correction of the Income Tax (IR) table. This was announced on Wednesday (1st) by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad. According to the Finance Minister, most countries tax the practice and regulation could come as soon as this month. “I’ll regulate. We have readjusted the IR table and this has a small loss. We will use taxes to offset these electronic games that don’t pay taxes but deprive the country of a fortune,” the minister said in an interview. “These kinds of games are taxed all over the world,” he added.

Although the minister referred to electronic games, the Treasury Press Office clarified that Haddad was referring to online sports betting, mainly football scores, also known as sports betting. Video games or electronic sports, so-called e-sports, would not be covered by the measure. In the interview, the minister did not specify how much the government will take from this measure. According to him, the economic team is still studying the tax implications. “The gain would be of the order of several billion reais. Not many [billions], but some.”

The Ministry of Finance is currently finalizing the proposal to correct the income tax table, one of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign promises. In an interview with CNN Brazil two weeks ago, Lula said the government intends to raise the exemption limit from May 1,903.98 to 2,640 reais, the equivalent of two minimum wages. If the measure goes into effect in two months, the government will lose 3.2 billion reais in tax revenue this year, according to the tax agency. For 2024, the impact would be 6 billion reais ($1 equals 5.21 reais).

SOURCE: agência latinapress.