Czech finance minister and a bad gambling tax idea

Czech citizens may be avid gamblers, but operators are unlikely to flock to a country that hammers them with a 30 to 40 percent tax on gross win in addition to a 19 percent corporate tax rate.

That’s the rather greedy ambition of the Czech Republic’s relatively new Finance Minister, Andrej Babis who wants to increase taxes on betting companies from 2016 to almost double the 20 percent the government currently takes from the sector, according to local newspaper reports Wednesday.

The reports note that Babis plans to boost the tax on gambling by between 30 and 40 percent, with fixed odds betting taxed at the lower end of the range and gaming machines at the upper end.

The minister is reportedly set to introduce his proposal this Friday in a bid to raise an additional 6 billion Czech crowns ($270 million).

Ironically, the Czech government has been reviewing its online gambling approach with a view to encouraging foreign operators to enter a legal and strictly regulated market…this sort of tax measure is unlikely to aid that process.

Related and similar