The Special Secretariat of Federal Revenue Service (RFB) of the Ministry of Finance has announced the Normative Ordinance No. 2.191 in the Official Diary of The Union which is set to impose a 15% tax on all betting wins in Brazil north of BRL2,824 ($547.25/€508.05/£437.77).
This news comes during a rather sensitive moment for the Brazilian betting scene, as the country is currently in the process of updating its current betting laws after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed the notorious Bill 3,626/2023 on December 21st, 2023.
As per the decision of the Economic Affairs Commission in November to impose a 15% income tax on personal winnings, betting operators in Brazil will be responsible for both collecting and calculating tax contributions from players.
The 15% tax will be applied in specific circumstances, namely when the winnings are paid and taxed at source before the player receives his/her winnings.
Moreover, the net winnings will be categorized as the difference between the amount of the bet and the value of the winnings after the end of each iGaming session or sports betting event, with any incursion of potential losses classified as non-deductible.
And that is just one of the several regulations headed toward the Brazilian iGaming scene. Namely, there are four stages of the Brazilian betting regulation, a process that was initiated with the appointment of attorney Regis Dudena as the chair of the Regulatory Policy of the Prizes and Betting Secretariat in late April.
The published ordinances include several legislations such as the Normative Ordinance No. 615 that outright bans gambling operators from accepting crypto payments and credit cards.
Then there is the Normative Ordinance No. 722 which instructs data centres to be re-located outside the country of Brazil. More specifically, this refers to the countries where these data centres are located holding a legal and international collaboration agreement with Brazil.
For the time being, the betting scene in Brazil is eagerly anticipating the end of July, the time when the government plans to fully reveal its newly created regulation that will also include rules on gambling ads and certain iGaming requirements.
