New taxes for gambling venues asked in the City of Buenos Aires

After rejecting the budget and the increment in taxes, the political counterattack of the opposition was to propose the government to charge an 8% tax to the collection of riverboat casinos, bingo halls and slots in Palermo horse racetrack. With these resources, they say, it could be replaced the tax increment proposed by City Mayor Mauricio Macri.

„When I was Mayor of the City, we fought for the gambling sector to pay Gross Incomes, but companies obtained judicial statements on their favor. And when we started to boost a special tax for the activity, I was removed. It’s about time the gambling sector started to pay taxes. Among USD 240.74 million and USD 361.1 million could be obtained, respectively“, assured Aníbal Ibarra, ex-Mayor of the City of Buenos Aires.

His party presented a project that already counts with the signatures of representatives of left parties, Coalición Cívica (Civic Coalition) and Marcelo Meis, a legislator that used to be close to PRO, the political party of Mayor Mauricio Macri.

Nowadays, gambling just collects USD 51,158,130 a year, due to an agreement signed between the nation and the city. Macri political party says that they are dealing a new agreement to receive USD 120,372,070 next year, but they did not consider to put a tax yet.

If PRO does not accept the gambling tax, the opposition should add the ruling party in order to approve it. Diego Kravetz, Chief of the ruling party in the congress, answered: „Ibarra and the Coalition know that the gambling business does not pay taxes in the city, because there are judicial statements that say so. They should not do demagoguery. In that case, a better agreement for the City should have to be debated, compared to the one Ibarra had signed.”