Costa Rica government seeks to introduce a new casino tax

The new tax is in process to be written, but even this way, the Executive Power has already ask to present the file before the Congress, explained Guillermo Zúñiga, president of the Commission of Treasury Affairs and who was Ministry of Finance in Arias administration.

The original plan has the file 17,551 and suggests a 2% tax of the gross income of gaming companies, and the Treasury works in researches on the number of resources that could be collected.
 
The proposal creates a Betting Regulator National Commission, responsible for granting, renovating, controlling and suspending the necessary licenses for the operation of these activities.
When it was presented by the Arias administration, the project suggestes possible income of around us$ 190,814. However, once in the Congress, legislators acknowledged that this data is not accurate.

The Treasury insists in the plan, that could be a support in the tax initiative of us$ 300 on legal entities, which,  at the discretion of the Minister of Economy, Fernando Herrero, the government will be able to keep its promise to increase in a us$ 95,407,100 the investment in public safety.

However, representatives from the opposition already claim a lack of transparency by the Executive Power when administrating these plans. Gustavo Arias, congressman from political party Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC), claimed a lack of coordination in the Presidencial House when calling for the tax initiative for casinos, because, considering that they are expecting for a substitute text, it cannot advance in the project.

Besides, the chief of Movimiento Libertario, Danilo Cubero, at first, reserved judgement to the bill plan. “We will have to see the new writing of the project, because we had talked about the original project, and now it turns our that they are doing changes,” he expressed.

Zúñiga affirms that the plan is necessary both to receive resources for security and to organize the betting activity in the country. The project is so far stucked in the commission, despite the executive said it was one of its priorities.