The vote on the Antifaction Bill, which includes a 15% tax on gambling deposits in Brazil, has been postponed until 2026.
The decision to delay the vote on PL 5,582/2025, which was endorsed by both the government and the opposition, was made during a meeting on Monday.
The Senate plenary last week approved the bill, which would introduce a 15% tax on player deposits made to licensed platforms. Funds from the tax measure, which is called the CIDE-Bets, would go towards the National Public Security Fund.
The measure was estimated to provide an additional annual revenue of approximately BRL30 billion ($5.5 billion) to help fund gaps in the government budget.
The bill also sought to reintroduce the RERCT Litígio Zero Bets measure, which would require operators to pay a 15% retrospective tax on their pre-regulation activities between 2018 and 2024.
Discussing the decision to postpone the Antifaction Bill vote, Workers’ Party leader Lindbergh Farias stated: “It’s a controversial topic that requires more debate.”
Tax on deposits hugely controversial among Brazil sector
The CIDE-Bets tax has been criticised by the Brazilian Institute of Responsible Gaming (IBJR), which warned it could grant illegal operators “the greatest competitive advantage the market has ever seen”.
The IBJR also expressed concerns about the sector’s sustainability in light of the potential for retrospective tax collection on licensed operators.
“By taxing the bettor’s deposit at 15%, the state decrees that BRL100 is only worth BRL85 in companies that follow the law,” the IBJR stated. “In the black market, however, the same BRL100 is worth the full amount. This is a direct incentive to migrate to the illegal market.
“Furthermore, the measure is based on a non-existent financial premise. It claims to collect BRL30 billion annually from a formal market that currently generates around BRL36 billion. Therefore, it projects collecting in taxes almost equivalent to the entire revenue of the regulated sector, which is mathematically impossible and renders formal economic activity unviable.”
Colombia represents a cautionary tale of player deposit taxes gone wrong. The market introduced a 19% value-added tax on player deposits in February.
In the months that followed, the Colombian Federation of Gaming Entrepreneurs (Fecoljuegos) trade body warned online GGR in Colombia had plummeted by 30%.
More relief for the Brazil betting sector
The postponement to the CIDE-Bets tax vote follows another tough measure for Brazil’s legal betting sector: a document that would force a bill to introduce a gradual tax rise for operators. This is yet to be analysed by the Senate plenary.
PL 5,473/2025, which proposed increasing the tax rate from the current 12% to 15% in 2026 and 2027 and 18% in 2028, was approved by the Senate’s Economic Affairs Committee on 2 December.
It was set to move to the Chamber of Deputies for final approval, but an appeal secured the eight signatures required to trigger further analysis within the Senate.
As a result, the bill is now unlikely to advance before the government recess begins later this month.
Original article: https://igamingbusiness.com/finance/tax/brazil-vote-tax-gambling-deposits-postponed-2026/
