Colombia's National Tax and Customs Authority drafts new tax measures to regulate online gambling

The National Tax and Customs Authority (DIAN) of Colombia, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, is preparing a new regulatory framework that will affect the online gambling industry and that could be included in a future tax reform.

According to the Director of the DIAN, Luis Eduardo Llinás, the entity is evaluating the implementation of specific taxes that will allow taxing transactions with cryptocurrencies and online gambling, "seeking to fill regulatory and fiscal gaps associated with emerging economic activities in Colombia."

During the 59th Banking Convention in Cartagena, the executive explained that the objective is not to increase existing taxes, but "to guarantee that sectors that are not currently regulated contribute adequately to the tax system."

Llinás indicated that these would be measures that could be included in the presentation of a tax reform that the Government is preparing, and added that, among the categories that would also be included, are virtual wallets, exchanges, and providers of virtual active services.

Luis Eduardo Llinás

"We are studying with the Ministry of Finance new control mechanisms and the possibility of a new tax reform in the sense of not increasing taxes, but establishing new controls for some sectors of the economy that currently do not tax us or that tax us in an undue way," he detailed.

It is important to remember that recently, the decree of advance payment of income tax was implemented, related to the advances of withholding tax for some sectors of the economy, and that the Colombian gaming industry has already questioned.

"Withholding tax is not a new tax, but an advance payment of income tax. Some analysts say that new taxes were created or that we increased them. It is an advance payment of the tax with which the collection of 2026 is collected in advance and which will generate a cash flow that we estimate at COP 7 trillion", the Director concluded.