The special secretary of the Federal Revenue, Robinson Barreirinhas, spoke at the CPI of Bets this Tuesday (11) and explained to the senators how the regularization of bets is going. The agency created a working group to analyze the financial movement provided by the companies. For him, the collected values 'may surprise'. He also anticipated that he intends to create a program for the regularization of companies with the Revenue and charge retroactive taxes since 2019.
The Senate's CPI of Bets heard this Tuesday (11), the special secretary of the Federal Revenue, Robinson Barreirinhas. In his testimony as a guest, he stated that the agency intends to charge retroactive taxes since 2019 from regulated companies in Brazil.
According to him, the first action of the Federal Revenue will be to analyze the consolidated data from the beginning of the regulated operation of sports betting and online gaming companies in Brazil to estimate the volume of resources collected and the amount of tax due.
“We must respect the companies that sought regulation and support them in the regulated market, but we cannot stop encouraging them to regularize the tax issue. They have made a lot of money since they started their operations and as they have been profitable since 2019, it is only fair that they pay the taxes due”, he stated.
According to him, it is almost impossible to charge taxes from companies that did not seek a license at the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) and that these companies will be treated with the rigor of the law in the sense of being prevented from operating in Brazil. But those that won the authorization, will have to pay taxes.
“Those that presented themselves and opened a company in Brazil we will give a vote of confidence”, he stated, reinforcing that he will not stop monitoring the period in which they were operating in the unregulated market. “If they had income in Brazil in the past, they owe taxes to Brazil”, he said.
“Those who were outside the legality and continue outside, we will treat them with the Tax Code in one hand and the Penal Code in the other, along with the Public Ministry”, stated Barreirinhas.
The secretary was questioned several times by the members of the CPI of Bets about the non-enforcement of sports betting and online gaming companies for tax evasion. They even stated that it is estimated at more than R$ 50 billion the taxes not collected since the legalization of the activity, at the end of 2018.
Without presenting numbers, Barreirinhas agreed that for years the bets operated in Brazil without the collection of taxes and that even the demonstrations of assets by executives of these companies demonstrate the enrichment with the activity.
According to him, the Federal Revenue and the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets are doing an analysis with the data of the regulated companies and an estimate of those that did not regularize to propose a differentiated treatment, in relation to one and the other.
“We have almost 80 companies within the law and countless outside the law and we will treat each one of them differently. To those who regularized we will give a vote of confidence and call them for self-regulation. I will tell them: ‘You did not appear out of nowhere. You were here before. Now I know how much you are billing, so let's talk about the past, the last five years? Shall we do a self-regulation?’. I believe they will do this, because if they do not, they will no longer be treated as partners of the Federal Revenue”.
About those that did not regularize in the SPA, Barreirinhas stated: “They are illegal and no one doubts that anymore. They are committing a crime against the tax order and will be treated as criminals”, he sentenced.
Payment companies in the crosshairs
Barreirinhas also pointed out the lack of rules that reach the payment processors of the bets. “I do not want to demonize fintechs, they are an extremely important instrument of banking inclusion for the Brazilian population. But the truth is that many end up being used – even because of the ease of opening an account in the name of other people – for this type of movement".
“In my understanding, there should be a slightly firmer control related to this type of opening, which often facilitates the use of these accounts in small fintechs for scams”, stated Barreirinhas, from questions from parliamentarians.
The secretary of the Revenue admitted that there are many serious companies that process payments, but that small companies were created to serve the illegal market and that these should be investigated and prosecuted so that they are prevented from conducting financial transactions for companies that did not seek authorization and were licensed by the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets of the Ministry of Finance.
Tax on the bettor
Barreirinhas also defended a more rigorous tax treatment in relation to bettors, as a way to discourage virtual bets. He stated that the taxation of winnings from bets, rejected by the National Congress in 2024, needs to be resumed.
“My position is that the bettor should pay Income Tax, because the tax, in this case, does not have a collection function, it has a dissuasive function, of not encouraging gambling. It is like this all over the world. We are treating the bettor better than we treat a real profit company in Brazil. It's crazy”, he stated.
According to the secretary, the law provides for taxation, but makes the reservation to consider it as "net prize", after the deduction of losses incurred with other bets. For Barreirinhas, this represents, in practice, an exemption.
After the participation of Barreirinhas, the CPI of Bets approved seven summonses and requests for information. One of the summonses is from the businesswoman Adélia de Jesus Soares, owner of the payment processor Payflow. Adélia also acts as a lawyer for the influencer Deolane Bezerra, accused of creating a betting site to launder money from illegal games.
The committee also approved a request from Senator Izalci Lucas that asks the SPA for information about the criteria and reasons that resulted in the classification of certain online betting companies as "unauthorized".
The CPI would also vote on the breaking of fiscal and banking secrecy of 71 of the 78 companies currently authorized by the SPA to operate sports betting and online games, but the requests were taken off the agenda due to the absence of the author of the requests, Senator Marcos Rogério.
Source: GMB
