Ukraine: gambling tax bill reaches second reading

Ukraine’s legislature has passed a bill on tax for the country’s new gambling market to a second reading.

Ukraine.- Ukraine’s legislature has advanced a bill on gambling tax to a second reading. 

An attempt to pass the bill on a single vote narrowly failed, but the proposal, which sets out a tax regime for Ukraine’s new gambling market, will go to a second reading.

The bill is an amended version of Bill 2713-d, which was put forward by committee chair Oleg Marusyak as Ukraine legalised gambling last August.

It sets a flat 10 per cent tax rate for all gambling verticals. Winnings would be taxed at eight times the country’s  annual minimum wage, or UAH48,000 (€1,429). 

The amended tax proposal also cancels a previous proposal to triple licence fees for the duration of a transition period until the creation of a central monitoring system for gambling.

The bill has been questioned by the legislature’s Scientific and Expert Management Committee, which said the regime was unjustified and could lead to a need for government subsidies to make up a funding shortfall.

However, the Rada came close to passing the bill directly into law without a second reading. Deputies voted 217-59 to pass the bill directly, with 55 members abstaining. That meant the bill missed the 226 votes required to pass without a second reading by just nine votes.

In a second vote on whether to progress the bill to a second reading, 229 deputies voted in favour, with 58 against, allowing it to pass.