{"id":28588,"date":"2022-03-31T09:07:49","date_gmt":"2022-03-31T12:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=28588"},"modified":"2026-04-23T10:00:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:00:57","slug":"philippines-bir-announces-5-tax-for-e-sabong-and-casino-operators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippines-bir-announces-5-tax-for-e-sabong-and-casino-operators","title":{"rendered":"Philippines: BIR announces 5% tax for e-sabong and casino operators"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>E-sabong and casino operators will have to pay a 5 per cent franchise tax to the BIR on their income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Philippines.-\u00a0<strong>The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)\u00a0<\/strong>has announced that casino and e-sabong operators as well as other Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) licensees must pay a\u00a0<strong>5 five per cent franchise tax\u00a0<\/strong>on income from their operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>BIR commissioner <strong>Caesar R. Dulay <\/strong>said the royalties payable to PAGCOR did not include royalties paid to the government under Executive Order 1869. He urged PAGCOR licensees to remit their taxes directly to the regional financial office where they are registered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dulay\u00a0said: &#8220;The regulatory fees paid by contractees to PAGCOR are different and distinct from the five per cent franchise tax payable to the BIR.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>PAGCOR itself pays a 5 per cent franchise tax on its business income\u00a0to the BIR in place of other taxes. Income from other related services, such as the sale of goods, is also taxable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pagcor-net-income-down-87-in-2021-due-to-covid-19-restrictions\" target=\"_blank\">PAGCOR<\/a>\u00a0reported that net income was down 86.9 per cent year-on-year to\u00a0<strong>PHP203.6m (US$4.0m)<\/strong>. Expenditures including donations to the national government\u00a0reached PHP17.86bn, down 4.48 per cent from the previous year\u2019s PHP18.7bn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the regulator, the drop in revenue was mainly due to multiple countermeasures and lockdowns associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. PAGCOR Chairman and CEO\u00a0<strong>Andrea Domingo<\/strong>\u00a0told Business Mirror that the closure of some Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) had also contributed to the drop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Philippines president: e-sabong will continue<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite calls urging PAGCOR to&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/philippines-calls-for-e-sabong-to-be-suspended-after-31-disappear\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">suspend online cockfighting<\/a>, e-sabong operations will go on, the Philippines\u2019 president has said. Some&nbsp;<strong>23 senators<\/strong>&nbsp;signed&nbsp;<strong>Resolution No. 996&nbsp;<\/strong>calling for a suspension after 31 people disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Duterte said: \u201cI appeal to congressmen to stop meddling with it. It is generating revenue, no one is benefitting there except PAGCOR and the big players.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>E-sabong and casino operators will have to pay a 5 per cent franchise tax to the BIR on their income.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":17179,"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 Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in the Philippines has clarified that casino and e-sabong operators, along with other PAGCOR licensees, must pay a 5% franchise tax on their income, distinct from royalties paid to PAGCOR. This clarification comes as PAGCOR reported an 86.9% year-on-year net income decline, primarily due to pandemic countermeasures and POGO closures. Despite calls for suspension, e-sabong operations will continue, supported by the President for its revenue generation.","focusai_entities":"Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), Caesar R. Dulay, Andrea Domingo, Business Mirror, Duterte, Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs)","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.8)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Tax Impact on GGR?","query":"How will the clarified 5% franchise tax on income, distinct from PAGCOR royalties, specifically impact the Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) and Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) projections for licensed operators in the Philippines?"},{"label":"E-sabong Regulatory Future?","query":"Given the President's directive to continue e-sabong operations despite social concerns, what are the long-term implications for its regulatory framework and potential for expanded licensing or increased taxation?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,16333],"tags":[23911,405],"class_list":["post-28588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-pagcor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28588","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\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28588"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28602,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28588\/revisions\/28602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}