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Peruvian regulator shows pragmatism
In an interview with the local media in mid December, the Director of Casino and Slot Machine Gaming at the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (MINCETUR) commented that the Peruvian state should maintain the 12% tax at present levied on gross gaming revenue. Under the latest modification to the gaming law, the tax will be replaced from 1 January 2007 with income tax 12% above the norm.
The intention of the State is to tax operators that evade paying any dues through recourse to the law. All companies must pay income tax, under penalty of incarceration for company officials for evasion. By abolishing the contentious gaming tax the government hopes to ensure that all gaming companies must pay additional taxes. However, the MINCETUR gaming director, Manuel Antonio San Roman Benavente, is unsure that this will work in practice as companies can claim many expenses and could reduce tax due to a minimum.
The gaming director was quoted as saying he knew of no groups lobbying for lower taxes for gaming operators, as had been claimed by the legislator Carlos Bruce. He also urged that more should be done to encourage those operating gaming machines informally to regularize their situation, as the rules were too demanding at present. It is estimated that out of around 640 gaming companies only 45 are formally licensed with another 20 in the process of being licensed.
It is the first time that a director of gaming regulation in Peru has proposed formalizing the status of gaming operators that have been allowed to do business unregulated and untaxed by past changes to gambling laws, with the subsequent damaging effect on the progress of the Peruvian gaming industry. Perhaps the recommendations of San Roman Benavente will be adopted and bring about a future improvement.
