Vice-President of the European Parliament Victor Negrescu spoke on Thursday during the meeting of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets (BUDG) about introducing an EU tax on the profits of online casinos and betting companies which could initially be set at 1% and would generate tens of billions of euros for the EU budget.
'I took the floor today [Thursday] in the Committee on Budgets of the European Parliament to highlight the risk that the budget proposed by the European Commission, worth two trillion euros, may unfortunately not have the necessary resources since this budget projection relies on increased contributions from member states and on new common EU taxes which require unanimity, and this does not exist for several of the taxes proposed by the European executive,' Negrescu told AGERPRES after the BUDG Committee meeting in which the first EP report on the future multiannual financial framework was presented.
He explained that together with his Social Democrat colleagues he had assessed several economic activities which on the one hand benefit from the single market and on the other do not contribute to the development of the EU.
'We identified several categories of activities in this regard and one of them concerns the online casino and betting industry. Many of these companies are headquartered in certain member states with very low taxation. There are also states that do not even apply VAT to these services which take advantage of the lack of European regulation in the area by bypassing both national and European budgets and the need to contribute to the development of the European single market,' the PSD MEP added, who is a member of the BUDG Committee.
He said that in the EU taxation, especially of profits, ranges from around 5% in Malta to almost 40% in Austria.
'In this context it is important that part of these resources, perhaps even some additional ones, should go to the common European budget. Today there is an assessment carried out by the European Parliament's research service, requested by me, which shows that this industry had a turnover of 130 billion euros in 2022. Most likely today we are talking about nearly 200 billion euros. This industry grows by at least 5% annually which means it is a growing industry and in this context it would be appropriate for a certain percentage of the taxes collected to go to the common European budget precisely to balance the taxation differences between member states,' Victor Negrescu argued.
He explained that he wants the revenues thus obtained to be directed towards an 'education tax.'
According to the EP Vice-President, it would be the first time that a tax is collected for a clear objective as such a specific tax proposal has not existed until now, but EU regulations allow it.
Under his proposal, the EU would take 1% of the taxes on the profits of online gaming and betting companies which could come from the sums already collected or through an additional levy of this percentage.
He explained that such a tax would also be beneficial for companies in this sector in Romania although he acknowledges he has not spoken with their representatives yet.
Negrescu added that according to his data many of the companies benefiting from lower taxation regimes are owned by companies outside the European area which often leads to profits being exported from the EU, stating that the aim is to keep part of these profits within Europe.
He pointed out that together with the S&D Group of which he is a member he intends to send a letter to the European Commission and the Council of the EU to present his proposal and its purpose.
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