If you’ve been wondering what’s going on in central Europe, gambling operators in Romania will have a new system to follow. There’s a few tax cuts for them which is a good thing for the operators. But nothing good comes without something bad. The gambling operators will also have to pay a certain sum to the government before a deadline. Let’s take a look.
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New Tax Rules for Gambling Operators in Romania
So let’s jump straight into it. The Romanian government has reduced the gambling turnover tax to 2%. Earlier, the turnover taxes, known as “gambling participation fees”, were 5 per cent turnover tax for online operators, and a 3 per cent tax for land-based casinos. The new ordinance slaps that. The gambling operators have to pay the gambling participation fees in addition to the already existing 16 per cent tax on the gross gambling revenue.
The new system will come as a huge relief for gambling operators. However, it has been reported that the government will retroactively apply the tax to last year’s performance of gambling operators with a Romanian license. That means operators are given a deadline, till February 25, to pay this amount. If not, they run the risk of being shut down.
The Romanian government has done this before in the past—retroactively charging the gambling industry to help fund its budget requirements. In 2015, operators which were going to be licensed at the time were required to pay back taxes, which was 20 per cent of the revenue they generated from Romanian punters since 2009. The government made a last-minute announcement to force operators to pay the amount.
It seems as though the gambling operators in Romania are getting a good deal in terms of new tax reduction laws. But they’ll also have to put up with paying a fee back, as nothing comes free.