Bulgaria rethinks online gambling tax rate

Bulgaria’s punitive online gambling tax regime may be in for a rethink, with sources indicating that on June 1st the tax rate will be halved.

Spokesmen for the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria said this week that the tax levied on internet gambling operators would definitely be cut from the current 15 percent on revenues to between 6 and 8 percent, following European practice and amid fears that too high taxes would drive a potentially lucrative business elsewhere.

Unnamed sources from the Parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee confirmed the rethink, noting that “…no foreign operator would come to Bulgaria, because the taxation would be very high.”

The first indications of the rethink surfaced earlier this year, when the chairperson of the parliamentary budget commission, Menda Stoyanova, predicted that the tax rate would be reduced on July 1 2012.  Finance minister Simeon Djankov agreed, although neither official would guess by how much.

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