Colombia’s government has proposed restoring a 19% VAT on online gambling deposits through a tax reform bill that would also change the taxable bases applied to land-based gaming, according to the official text published by Congress. The bill remains under committee consideration and has not become law.
The measure sits in Article 41 of Bill 477/2026C, known as the Ley de Rescate Económico. The article would amend the Tax Statute to bring internet gambling into the general VAT regime, while retaining the existing exclusion for lotteries.
Crucially for operator modelling, the online taxable base would be the amount deposited into a player’s account divided by 1.19. On a COP119,000 deposit, that produces a COP100,000 taxable base and COP19,000 in VAT. The mechanism is therefore not a deduction of 19% from the full deposit, a distinction that materially changes the effective cost of the levy.
Deposits caught by the measure include cash payments and transfers of money or cryptoassets made to obtain the right to bet. Operators would be responsible for the tax, including operators based overseas where customers meet the bill’s criteria for Colombian residence or establishment. Article 41 also permits input VAT credits against the tax generated.
For land-based gambling, the bill sets proposed monthly taxable bases of 40 tax value units (UVT) per ordinary slot machine, 580 UVT per gaming table and six UVT per bingo seat. These figures are calculation bases rather than fixed tax bills.
The deposit-based approach differs from the 16% national consumption tax established for 2026 under Decree 0240, which is calculated on gross gaming revenue — total bets minus prizes paid during each two-month reporting period — rather than on deposits. The two methods can produce sharply different liabilities for the same volume of play.
In its explanatory memorandum, the government states that the VAT would operate alongside existing gambling exploitation fees that fund healthcare, rather than replacing them. The memorandum forecasts COP2 trillion in additional online-gambling VAT revenue in 2027.
On timing, Article 106 of the bill provides for commencement upon promulgation unless otherwise specified, and Article 41 contains no separate implementation date. Although the explanatory memorandum discusses effects from 2027, the operative gambling provision does not expressly set January 1 as its starting point — leaving the practical start date dependent on when, and in what form, the bill is enacted.
The proposal lands against a turbulent fiscal backdrop for the sector. Financing bills containing gambling-tax measures failed in Colombia in both 2024 and 2025, while a temporary deposit-based VAT applied during 2025. A subsequent emergency decree imposed a 19% VAT on gross gaming revenue for 2026, but it was suspended in January and struck down in April after the enabling emergency declaration was invalidated.
The outgoing Petro administration proposed an online-gambling VAT again in July, before the latest bill revived the deposit-based approach now before Congress. For licensed operators in Latin America’s longest-established regulated online market, the question is no longer whether a gambling VAT will be attempted, but which base — deposits or gross gaming revenue — ultimately survives the legislative process.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed under the GamblingZine editorial verification process.
Sources
- Colombia proposes 19% VAT on online gambling deposits — Independent reporting (published 2026-11-03)
Reporting verified against the sources above; retrieval timestamps are preserved in the editorial record.