According to insiders, the amount may not reach the public coffers all at once, as authorities are considering offering the option to pay in installments. In total, 135 betting companies would have to make retroactive payments. The regulated fixed-odds betting market began in January 2025, and in April of the same year the government started taxing the sector at 12%.
When contacted, the Ministry of Finance confirmed it is reviewing the measure: “There is a working group, made up of the Federal Revenue Service (RF) and the Prizes and Betting Secretariat (SPA), which is analyzing the matter. The results will support the Federal Revenue’s actions regarding a possible retroactive charge. Due to the confidentiality that surrounds tax intelligence matters, it is not possible to provide further details.”
The Annual Oversight Report, published by the Federal Revenue Service with its 2025 plan, describes measures related to fixed-odds betting as “structural.” The document states it will “evaluate measures to ensure compliance at sustainable levels in the fixed-odds betting market, considering the differences between agents authorized by market regulators and those operating outside the law.”
In March of this year, Federal Revenue Secretary Robinson Barreirinhas stated that betting companies operating in Brazil before regulation should pay retroactive taxes. According to him, if it is proven that companies operated in the country and made a profit during that period, they must pay taxes to the Treasury.
“If there was a material presence here in Brazil and there was profit, they must pay income tax; if there was revenue, they must pay PIS/Cofins,” he said. At the time, he was responding to a question from Senator Soraya Thronicke (União-MS).
At that time, he was participating in the Senate’s Parliamentary Inquiry Committee (CPI) on betting. Barreirinhas explained that companies authorized by the Ministry of Finance received a “vote of confidence,” but that does not mean there will be no investigation into their past activities. “Because, in the past, if they had income here in Brazil, had revenue, and were in fact operating in Brazil, they owe taxes to the country,” he noted.
Online betting was legalized at the end of former president Michel Temer’s (MDB) administration, but was not regulated under former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL), which fueled the growth of companies in the sector.
Finance Minister Fernando Haddad has publicly stated that he is against betting companies. “There is no tax revenue that justifies the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into,” he said. He claims that more than R$ 40 billion (US$7.35bn) in taxes were not paid by betting companies during the time the sector remained unregulated.
Meanwhile, a Provisional Measure (MP) is being debated in the National Congress that would raise the tax rate to 18%. With the rate increase, the economic team expects to boost revenue by R$ 284.94 million (US$ 52.4m) in 2025 and by R$ 1.7 billion (US$312m) in 2026 and 2027.
Source: Metrópoles
