The European Commission reports Portugal for discriminating foreign lotteries

The European Commission (EC) has reported Portugal before the Community Justice, because it considers that fiscal regulations of the country discriminate foreign lotteries, whose prizes are taxed compared to the exemption of national lotteries.

Portuguese legislation exempts the tax of winnings of the draws organized by Santa Casa da Misericordia of Lisbon – Euromillones and Liga de Millones -, an entity that develops social activities, explained the community government in a press release.

However, prizes from bets and competitions organized by foreign entities must pay taxes. EC considers that Portugal is discriminating foreign lotteries, banned in the community laws, so it had reported the situation before the EU Court.

After the first warning in Brussels last September, Portugal decided to extend the exemptions to the lotteries that are part of the network of “Euromillones Europeos” (Spain, Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxemburg, Portugal, UK and Switzerland). However, the prizes of the rest of the UE countries do pay taxes, so finally EC has decided to bring the case to the court.