{"id":10992,"date":"2020-10-18T15:13:48","date_gmt":"2020-10-18T15:13:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=10992"},"modified":"2026-04-24T00:54:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:54:52","slug":"pagcor-says-pogos-must-pay-new-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pagcor-says-pogos-must-pay-new-tax","title":{"rendered":"PAGCOR says POGOs must pay new tax"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s government has approved a new economic relief package that changes the way POGOs are taxed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Philippines.- The Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) has told Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) that they will have to pay the new 5 per cent tax on turnover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Philippine government has passed an economic recovery package<\/a><\/em><\/strong> known as Bayanihan 2, or the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, which makes changes to the way taxes are applied to offshore gaming operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this new regulation, Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s government seeks to bring in US$2.87 billion from POGO taxes<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGCOR<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, which has so far maintained a distance from the conflict between the government and POGOs over taxes, has sent a memo to POGOs advising that they will have to pay the tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGCOR Assistant Vice President Jose Tria Jr. wrote that they must pay “amounts derived from the five per cent franchise tax on the gross bets or turnover or the agreed pre-determined minimum monthly revenues from gaming operations, whichever is higher, earned by offshore gaming licensees, including gaming operators, gaming agent, service providers, and gaming support providers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This does not exempt POGOs from paying income tax, VAT, and other applicable taxes on income from non-gaming operations, PAGCOR said in the memo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The payment must be computed based on the Philippine peso equivalent of the foreign currency they generated their revenues in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Failing to pay these taxes could lead to POGOs being shut down by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the memo warned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s government has approved a new economic relief package that changes the way POGOs are taxed.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10994,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Philippine government, under Rodrigo Duterte, has enacted the Bayanihan 2 economic recovery package, imposing a new 5% franchise tax on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators' (POGOs) gross bets or turnover. PAGCOR has issued a memo to POGOs, mandating compliance with this new tax, which aims to generate US$2.87 billion, alongside existing income tax and VAT obligations for non-gaming operations. Non-compliance could lead to POGO shutdowns by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.","focusai_entities":"Rodrigo Duterte, PAGCOR, Jose Tria Jr., Bureau of Internal Revenue","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (0.98), compliance_legal (0.97), operator_casino (0.99), affiliate_publisher (0.75), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.96), supplier_vendor (0.85), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Tax Impact Analysis","query":"What is the projected net impact of the 5% franchise tax on POGO gross gaming revenue (GGR) and net gaming revenue (NGR) margins, considering existing income tax and VAT obligations, and how might this influence POGO operational viability and market consolidation?"},{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement Outlook","query":"How will PAGCOR and the BIR coordinate enforcement mechanisms to ensure POGO compliance with the new tax regime, particularly regarding the computation of foreign currency revenues, and what specific penalties or operational disruptions are anticipated for non-compliant operators?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[161,156,158,16333],"tags":[405,128,15789],"class_list":["post-10992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-pagcor","tag-philippines","tag-pogos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10992"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10996,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10992\/revisions\/10996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}