Russian parliament considers gambling tax rise
The parliament is set to consider next week a bill that would increase gambling taxes.
Russia.- The Russian parliament is scheduled to review a bill that would increase gambling taxes during the second reading that will take place on November 10. The increase would affect all gambling activities in the Eurasian country.
The amendments proposed by the Russian Finance Ministry would set new taxes in the country. Bookmakers that run gaming tables or a processing centre would see taxes rise from US$863 to US$4300, whilst for slot machines it would go up from US$51 to US$258, AGBrief reported. Moreover, the document to be considered in the next couple of weeks introduces a US$43k to US$51k tax on a TSUPIS, an online betting processing centre.
Last month, the Ministry of Finance’s website also revealed the guidelines for its budget and taxes for 2018-2020, which established that gaming taxes are expected to double starting January 1, 2018, with further increases until 2020.
The Ministry said that gaming tax rates, which haven’t increased in 13 years, will increase 10 times by 2020 in order to increase revenue from official budgets. Land-based operators currently don’t pay any taxes on gaming revenue but they do pay flat fees for gaming tables or electronic gambling machines, whilst bookmakers pay a similar flat fee for each retail they have. The new regulations will be applied to both land-based and online gambling operators.
