Georgia Proposes Tax Increases on Gambling Industry: A Significant Budget Boost Expected
Date: 2023-11-06 Author: Dima Zakharov Categories: EVENTS
Tax Changes to Bolster Budget Revenues
PM Gharibashvili has suggested raising the current 10% tax rate on gambling businesses to 15%. Simultaneously, he proposed increasing the tax on withdrawals from gambling businesses, currently set at 2%, to 5%.
This new initiative, officially presented to the public by the PM, is anticipated to contribute an additional 400 million GEL ($147 million) to the country's budget in 2024. Furthermore, an extra 300 million GEL ($110 million) is expected from banks, resulting in a total additional income of 700 million GEL ($257.8 million) for the upcoming year.
PM Expresses Concerns About Gambling Industry's Growth
PM Gharibashvili voiced his concerns about the escalating turnover of the domestic gambling sector, which surged from 48 billion GEL ($17 billion) to 52 billion GEL ($19 billion) in 2022. He expressed his disappointment, referring to it as something he is "really not happy about."
The head of the government described these figures as "catastrophic" and expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the number of citizens actively involved in gambling had not decreased as expected.
These developments occurred within the context of significant changes introduced by the government in 2022, including the ban on gambling-related advertising and the prohibition of Georgians under the age of 25 from participating in gambling.
1.5 Million Georgians Restricted from Gambling
The latter measure led to the automatic restriction of 1.5 million Georgian citizens from engaging in gambling. Despite this, the PM pointed out that "we see that too many citizens are involved," even two years after the government announced plans to impose the strictest online casino regulations in the region.
This announcement was quickly followed by a series of important prohibitions on online gambling, including the suspension of gambling advertisements and a new tax regime. These measures were implemented to address gambling-related harm and curb the loss of significant tax revenue due to unregulated gambling operations, as explained by the PM.
