Macau collected US$50m in tax revenue in July

Macau’s Financial Services Bureau has revealed the tax figures for July.

Macau.- Macau’s Financial Services Bureau has revealed results for July, reporting a fall in tax revenue of 46.8 per cent compared to June. The government collected nearly MOP402.4 million (US$50.4 million) from the city’s gaming industry in July.

Macau casino GGR declined by 94.5 percent in July compared to the same period last year, to MOP1.34 billion (US$167 million). That figure represented an increase from the MOP716 million (US$89.6 million) recorded in June.

Aggregate Macau casino GGR for the first seven months of 2020 stood at approximately MOP35.06 billion, a decrease of 79.8 percent year-on-year.

The government taxes the GGR of Macau casinos at a rate of 35 percent, but other levies on casino gaming gross effectively raise the tax rate to 39 per cent.

Other taxes on the Macau gambling sector include levies on the income of Chinese traditional lotteries, horse racing, instant lotteries and tax on commissions earned by operators of gambling junkets.

The latest official data indicates that revenue from gaming collected so far in 2020 accounted for about 77.8 percent of the MOP28.53 billion (US$3.5 billion) tax revenue the government collected from all sources.

Despite the decline, the government recorded a surplus of MOP22.64 billion (US$2.83 billion) up to July 31 due to an increase in “other capital revenue” in the last two months.

The Macau government is expecting a deficit of MOP38.95 billion (US$4.87 billion) for 2020 due to measures taken to support the economy during the pandemic.