Ukraine to impose 10% universal gambling tax

Ukraine-licensed operators will have to pay a 10% tax on gross gambling revenue (GGR) under a newly amended bill published by the Ukrainian government. The Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy revealed the new version of bill 2713-D at the end of last week, scrapping prior proposals to tax different verticals at different rates. An original version of the bill proposed a 5% GGR tax for sports betting, rising to 10% for online gambling and lotteries and 12.5% for land-based slots. However, these rates have been replaced with a universal 10% rate, applicable across all verticals. Operators are also liable to pay Ukrainian corporation tax of 18%. A withholding tax that would see customer winnings of more than UAH50,000 (£1,200) taxed as income is also included within the amended bill, and will be based on a rate of 19.5%. The new bill has abolished requirements that would see operators pay tripled licence fees until an online monitoring system for gambling activities is created. Under the previous legislation, prospective sports betting operators would have been required to pay an annual licence fee of €2.8m (£2.5m) while the system is being developed, falling to just €960,000 (£868,000) thereafter. Online casino licensees would also have been subject to the same pre-system price hike, paying €624,000 (£564,000) during the development period, dropping to €208,000 (£188,000) once the system goes live. However, this new bill would see both casino and sports betting operators benefit from lower licence fees from day one. The bill will now pass to the Verkhovna Rada for review and potentially further amendment before being signed off by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. At present, only two operators have received a licence to operate in Ukraine: Cosmolot and Parimatch.