9 October, Minsk /BELTA/. The taxation system for gambling business entities in Belarus will be improved. This was announced today at a press conference in BELTA by Vladimir Mukhvich, Head of the Main Department for Control of Taxable Goods, Gambling Business and Electronic Sales Control Systems of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties of the Republic of Belarus.
According to him, this is due to the fact that the current taxation system in this area, based on a fixed tax rate, is "not the fairest" as it does not take into account the actual income of many business entities. "It is clear that income from activities in Minsk is likely higher than, for example, in Gomel or Vitebsk," explained the specialist. "Therefore, our task is to make this system fairer."
One way to achieve this goal is to transition to a combined taxation system, which includes a fixed tax and a certain percentage of the turnover of gambling business entities. "But it should be understood that in order to switch to such a system, it is necessary to create conditions that prevent the concealment of these turnovers. Because we have been through this before: before the introduction of the fixed tax, when taxation depended entirely on the revenue of business entities, many of them concealed it. And after its introduction, budget revenues from this sector significantly increased," noted Vladimir Mukhvich. Therefore, according to him, the task has been set to develop a mechanism that, on the one hand, will allow the transition to a new taxation system, and on the other hand, will make it effective so that budget revenues do not decrease.
The solution to this problem, Vladimir Mukhvich noted, will be facilitated by the creation of a special computer system (SKKS) in the country to control turnovers in the gambling business sector. At the same time, in his opinion, the main thing is that such a system is effective from the point of view of state control over the income of gambling business entities and at the same time does not hinder their economic activities.
Work in this direction, as outlined in the concept for the development of the gambling business, does not stop for a single day, said the specialist. In particular, a pilot version of the system is already operational, to which about 1,000 gaming machines are connected. The accumulated experience will be used in the creation of a fully functional system. It is planned that it will be implemented next year and will cover all gaming tables, gaming machines, as well as bookmaker's offices' cash desks.
"In any case, this sphere of activity is subject to licensing, and each of its entities will subsequently have to think twice about whether to conceal their income or not. Because the detection of concealment facts will undoubtedly be grounds for the revocation of the license," - summarized the representative of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties. -0-
BELTA