Spanish operators warned of Garzón’s tax review intentions

Alberto Garzón, Spain’s Minister of Consumer Affairs, has revealed his department’s intentions to undertake a wholesale review of the country’s gambling’s tax regime across all licensed verticals.

The minister made his statement in an interview with Europa Press radio, revealing that Spain’s Ministry of Consumer Affairs had ‘studied potential new formulas to tax gambling and sports betting operators’.

Garzón maintained that any tax review would require approval from Spain’s Ministry of Finance with regards to implementing fiscal change on a licensed sector.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs has stated its tax review intentions to the Treasury, but said as yet “no specific project has been put on the table”.

For the remainder of 2021, Garzón said that his department was focused on working with Spain’s autonomous governments to implement new federal standards improving gambling protections.

The reordering of gambling standards across Spain’s 17 autonomous communities has been marked as the key objective of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs ‘phase 2’ revamp of Spanish gambling laws. 

Last December, Spain’s autonomous governments agreed to form a ‘technical body’ charged with supporting the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Spanish gambling regulator DGOJ on ‘harmonising gambling laws’. 

The desired objectives sought by the ministry include the creation of a federal self-exclusion scheme, an online gambling player registry and standardised land-based gambling venue laws across all autonomous communities.