Between January and July of this year, legal gambling organisers paid UAH 9.8 billion in tax payments to the state budget of Ukraine. This figure, especially during the war, is really impressive. Considering that last year, the state budget received UAH 10.4 billion from the gambling business, it is already clear that in 2024, a record will be set in terms of tax payments from gambling.
This result was an occasion for the "de-shadowers" of the gambling business to boast about their "achievements in the fight" and once again helped to shift public attention from the real problems of gambling market reform to the emotional satisfaction of "records".
The fact that legal gambling is developing is most likely the result of the hard work of those few who believe that Ukraine can and should become a regional leader in the entertainment industry, gaining a significant share of the pan-European market, despite all the difficulties that have been created in recent years on this path. The difficulties are primarily of a legislative nature and are manifested in the increased administrative pressure on the legal gambling market and the ignoring of the need to regulate the semi-legal market, which has existed for the second decade in a row and is based on the special legal status of lotteries, which in Ukraine... are not recognised as gambling!
And since lotteries are not gambling, they are taxed as lightly as possible, and the state budget does not receive funds from their activities. However, lawmakers do not care about this. Despite the fact that the current legislation allows lottery operators to imitate virtually all types of gambling and make good money on it, leaving the interests of the state out of sight, the parliament has not even managed to create a temporary investigative commission to check the shortfall in funds!
Similarly, MPs are in no hurry to streamline fiscal legislation. Adoption of the draft law No. 2713-d, which has been pending consideration in the second reading for several years, would allow solving several problems simultaneously:
- to eliminate problems and inconsistencies in gambling taxation by removing temporary regulations, unifying terminology and bringing Ukrainian fiscal rules closer to global ones;
- to reassure Western investors and guarantee the stability of the rules of the game in the taxation system;
- significantly increase revenues from the legal gambling market to the budgets of all levels.
In the four years since the restoration of the legal gambling sector, Ukraine has lost significant budget revenues due to an insufficiently developed tax policy.
As an industry, gambling can be a source of much more revenue through taxes. However, if the rates are too high or the taxation system is complicated, it can lead to tax evasion or even the closure of legal operations.
It is important to find a balance between stimulating the development of the industry and ensuring adequate budget revenues. A reasonable tax policy can help Ukraine not only increase budget revenues but also create a healthy environment for the development of gambling in the country.
The inadequate taxation of gambling has deprived the budget of billions of hryvnias - it's time to fix the situation. For example, we can start with the return of lotteries to the gambling sector and the introduction of an appropriate taxation scheme for them.
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