The Secretary of the Federal Revenue, Robinson Barreirinhas, stated this Wednesday (4) that the focus of the agency is to inspect companies that promote online betting and not the bettors. Barreirinhas spoke as a guest at the Senate CPI of Manipulation of Games and Sports Betting. He criticized the overturning of the veto to the article of the law that regulates the sector and that provided for the collection of Income Tax at the source from the player.
“The Federal Revenue putting effort to inspect the individual might be an effort, a demand of human resources with practically no revenue, because in principle the bettor loses more than wins,” said the special secretary of the Federal Revenue, Robinson Barreirinhas.
The secretary clarified to the CPI that it is a challenge to charge taxes on betting companies based abroad, but with a strong presence in Brazil. He said he expects effective inspection from January 1, 2025, when the so-called bets will be required to establish companies in the country, and that cases of fraud are already being investigated.
“There are cases where the own inspection, the investigation of the Revenue and other security agencies shows that there is a simulation: in fact, the company is controlled by a Brazilian, a resident in Brazil. In this case, there is no doubt that we will make the charge”.
He praised the taxation model established by Law 14.790 of 2023 and opined that the legal presence of the companies in the country will lead to a “quality leap” in inspection and collection. But, to Senator Romário (PL-RJ), reporter of the CPI, Barreirinhas admitted that there are lacking legal instruments for the Revenue to tax bets that do not submit to Brazilian legislation.
“That is why the model approved in the National Congress provided for this obligation that the company has a legal representative here so that there can be this dialogue (…) and the collection of taxes. (…) The whole world debates how to deal, in the virtual environment, with an increasingly intense provision of services and exchange of goods”.
The secretary of the Federal Revenue also assured that the accreditation data of bets submitted to the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA) are being processed for the inspection activity.
Taxation of bettors
Barreirinhas also admitted that the Revenue has the expectation to tax “practically nothing” from bettors. He recalled that the agency requested the veto of a provision of Law 14.790 of 2023 that allowed the compensation between amounts bet and prizes over a year, under the argument that “very few people” will win more than they bet. The veto imposed by the President of the Republic, however, was overturned by Congress.
“It is not a criticism. The Federal Revenue necessarily works with what is approved by Congress, and it is sovereign in relation to this, but the fact is that the way this law was made, with the overturning of the veto, basically makes any charge of tax in relation to the bettor unfeasible”.
Barreirinhas added that, even if the bettor has profit, the inspection is difficult over a large number of taxpayers, many with “very low” income value and probably within the exemption range of Income Tax.
The generalized charge, as he evaluated, will only be effective when the bets start to provide data of movements linked to the CPFs of the bettors, but he questioned the cost of inspecting individuals for a very small collection. “Our focus has to be on the company. The company, yes, is the one that wins, it is the one that has profit, it is the one that has to pay Income Tax, Social Contribution, PIS-Cofins”, he stated.
“We have the conditions, with our technological expertise, to gather information from various sources, process this information and be effective. We are absolutely effective in relation to the bet not for lack of information. From January 1, we will have a series of other data that will allow another world in relation to this inspection”.
Source: GMB
