Participants in lottery and betting games and the global jackpot will pay a 10 or 15 percent tax on winnings next year, if the amendment to the proposed amendments to the Personal Income Tax Law submitted to the Parliament by a member of the European Parliament is adopted. Armen Šehović.
According to information from "Vijesti", after a year of disputes over the current solution on taxation of profits, the organizers agreed with this proposal, and due to procedures, it was easier for an MP to propose it than for the Ministry of Finance.
At the proposal of the Government, the Parliament adopted amendments to the Law on Personal Income Tax in September last year, which then introduced a 15 percent tax on the difference between the payment and the winnings in all forms of games of chance exceeding 300 euros, with a delayed implementation from January 1 of this year. However, as the Ministry of Finance did not adopt bylaws, the winnings were not taxed this year.
Last year, during the discussion on the then-current proposal, organizers of games of chance pointed out that it is impossible to determine what the winnings (the difference between the deposit and the payout) are in games of chance in casinos and slot machines, and that they are not taxed anywhere in the proposed manner.
The current proposal stipulates that only winnings from lottery and betting games, as well as from the organization of the so-called global jackpot, are taxed if they exceed 50 euros. Winnings are considered the difference between the amount of an individual payment (on a ticket) and the winnings from that payment.
The tax is 10 percent on winnings between 50 and 1.500 euros, and 15 percent on the part exceeding that amount. The tax will be deducted when the winnings are paid out in cash, to a bank account, to the player's account with the organizer, or when the winnings are used to continue playing. Similar solutions already exist in Croatia and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
For example, if a player with a deposit of five euros made a profit of 100 euros, the tax base is the difference of 95 euros. It is reduced by the non-taxable part of 50 euros, so that the winner is deducted 10 percent of the remaining 45 euros, or 4,5 euros.
The tax deduction will be done by the organizer, or rather its system for processing data on payments and disbursements. The organizer will forward the collected tax to the Tax Administration by the 15th day of the following month.
The proposal also defines what "global jackpot" means.
"Gain from games of chance from the global jackpot is considered to be the total gain realized from the accumulated prize fund, which is formed by a given percentage allocation in relation to the stake realized on all slot machines at all locations of the organizer, based on pre-set conditions within a single information system that serves to monitor business operations," the proposal states in its explanation.
Organizers often organize special prizes called “jackpots” where a portion of the payments are collected into a special fund for that big prize. The intention of the proponents is to tax that prize regardless of which organizer and on which games it is organized.
According to an earlier version of the bill, the state expected to collect five million euros annually from taxation of profits, but because the law was poorly written and without bylaws, not a single euro was collected.
Bonus video:
