Ukrainian parliament misses vote on gambling tax framework

Ukraine’s final tax regime for gambling has yet to enter law.

Ukraine. After several delays, the final approval of a tax regime for Ukraine’s new regulated gambling market has yet to be decided.

The national parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, missed its last opportunity to vote on the proposed tax framework this year after closing its hearings on Friday.

Ukraine passed legislation to re-legalised gambling last year after a decade of prohibition, but the issue of taxes on the industry remained undecided with several competing proposals on the table.

Bill 2713, which proposes a flat 10 per cent tax on all gambling verticals, is the proposal that’s gained the backing of the Committee on Finance and passed its first reading, but it’s still awaiting its final vote.

That was due to take place last month but was postponed to December. However, again there’s been no vote due to a buildup of work at the end of the year, particularly involving the Covid-19 pandemic and tensions with Russia.

Ilya Machavariani, senior partner at 4H Agency, said: “We are constantly monitoring the situation regarding everything that concerns gambling regulations in Ukraine and today we were expecting it to finally unfold into something more meaningful than another delay.

“Unfortunately, the Parliament has run out of time to hear the Bill 2713 today. We’ll see if it finally gets to the voting in two weeks’ time. At the moment, the prospects of that are rather grim.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s new regulator, the Commission for the Regulation of Gambling and Lotteries (KRAIL), has presented guidelines for its response to unlicensed online gaming operators in Ukraine following the relegalisation of gambling.

KRAIL’s policy states that it will contact website owners by email to give unlicensed gaming businesses three working days to stop operating. If the operator does not comply, KRAIL will write to the hosting server, which must order the operator to stop its operations.