In the government’s defeat, congressmen overturned Lula’s veto on taxation established in the law that regulates the sector
Congress overturned this Thursday (May 9, 2024) a section vetoed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in the law that regulated sports betting. The senators and deputies resumed the release of IR (Income Tax) exemption for prizes of up to R$2,259, an amount that corresponds to the 1st tax exemption bracket.
The project that regulated the sports betting sector in Brazil was one of the government’s priorities to increase revenue this year. Now, the charge will only come once a year for bettors. Furthermore, the tax now applies only to the net premium, minus losses, for example.
Overturning the veto should reduce the government’s revenue, which seeks to meet the fiscal target stipulated by the Ministry of Finance and achieve zero deficit, with the bets.
In a congressional veto analysis session, votes “no” are to overturn the veto and votes “Yes” to keep it. In the Senate, Lula’s act received 64 votes against and 8 in favor. In the Chamber, in turn, the veto was rejected by 417 to 64.
The text was approved by the Chamber of Deputies on December 22 and was sanctioned. Establishes a rate of 12% on the revenue from bookmakers, minus the payment of prizes. Bettors must pay 15% of the amount won with the prize in this betting model.
By sanctioning the law with vetoes, Lula justified that maintaining the section “would give rise to taxation different from that seen in other lottery modalities, thus creating a distinction in tax conduct without a motivating reason for this”.
