Legislation
Uruguay – Uruguay to introduce 60 year old tax rate
By Phil - 2 August 2013
Members of Uruguay’s political party Partido Colorado have put forward a proposal which would reintroduce into law a tax rate of 10 per cent on Gross Gaming Revenues.
The law which dates back to 1946 was originally passed in order to raise additional income for the Uruguay Public Health Service and prevent treatable diseases. However, the tax has not been imposed during a number of successive administrations.
According to Deputy for Montevideo Aníbal Gloodtdofsky, who has put forward the new proposal before the House of Deputies, the law should go into effect once again and would affect the casinos located in capital Montevideo. Therefore, both the Parque Hotel casino as well as the Carrasco casino, which reopened in March, would be liable to pay the new tax.
The 1946 law was designed specifically to provide additional funds to the Uruguayan Public Health Service and funds would be destined to widen patient access to expensive drugs and treatments for serious diseases. The additional funds, would according to Mr Gloodtdofsky, be used, “to improve the quality of life and prolong the life of patients.” So as not to provide an overly burdensome tax liability Mr Gloodtdofsky has proposed that the taxes be back dated five years as opposed to the entire time the government had failed to collect the tax.
The proposals come after the legal department of the treasury of the Uruguayan Health Service announced that that the tax was still legally in force but was not being put into effect. According to a report published by the Director of its legal division Feliciano Mauvezin, the law states clearly that a proportion of casino revenue be deposited to aid the Uruguayan health sector.
