Portuguese sports betting tax "unlikely" to change
Early review of controversial tax regime doubtful but could be amended in the future, says leading Portuguese lawyer
Portugal’s controversial sports betting turnover tax is unlikely to be changed despite mounting criticism, a leading lawyer in the country has said.
Speaking to eGaming Review Nuno Azevedo Neves, partner at Lisbon-based law firm ABBC & Associados, said a switch to the preferred GGR-based tax model would require the legislative authorisation – which determines the boundaries in which the acting government can regulate the matter – to be amended.
This means any changes to the taxation regime are beyond the government’s current authority, he said.
“[It’s] very unlikely to take place since the [legislative authorisation] has already been published and subjected to public discussion,” Azevedo Neves said.
The country’s online gambling regulation has continued to edge closer to being passed into law in recent months however the decision to impose a tax of between 8% and 16% of total betting stakes rather than GGR has been widely condemned.
Last week a report published by PwC on behalf of the Remote Gaming Association (RGA) found that the Portuguese state would lose up to 20m in tax receipts if it persevered with the stakes-based regime instead of switching to a GGR-based model.
The decision is likely to deter a number of operators from applying for a licence and Azevedo Neves said the government could re-think the tax proposals if egaming firms give the jurisdiction a wide berth.
“We believe it is possible for the government to change [the tax proposals] in the future if it finds [they] are deterring the application of new licensees,” he said.
Portugal is now free to pass the bill into law after an extended standstill period expired last month, and it is still expected that the framework will be implemented by the summer.