Colombia proposes 19% VAT on online betting deposits

The Colombian government has proposed a tax reform that would apply 19% VAT to online betting deposits. According to the official bill published in Congress, the proposal also changes the taxable bases for land-based games. Article 41 of the bill includes online betting in the general VAT regime under Law 477/2026C, known as the Economic Rescue Law. Lottery income remains excluded. The proposal is still under committee review and has not become law.

The taxable base will be the amount deposited into the player's account divided by 1.19. On that basis, a deposit of 119,000 pesos means a taxable base of 100,000 pesos and 19,000 pesos of VAT. 19% will not be charged on the full deposit. The deposit covers cash payments and money or crypto asset transfers made to obtain betting rights. This method differs from the 16% national consumption tax set for 2026 by Decree 0240. That tax is calculated not on deposits but on gross gaming revenue, meaning total bets minus prizes paid, over two-month periods.

Operators serving Colombian customers from abroad will also be responsible for VAT if they meet the residence or business place criteria. The article also allows input VAT to be deducted against the calculated tax. For land-based games, the proposed monthly bases are 40 UVT for each standard slot machine, 580 UVT for each gaming table, and 6 UVT for each bingo seat. These are calculation bases, not fixed tax amounts.

According to the government's explanatory statement, VAT will not replace the existing gaming operation fees that fund health spending. It will be applied alongside them. The government expects online betting to generate an additional 2 trillion pesos in VAT revenue in 2027. Article 106 provides that, unless otherwise stated, the law will take effect on the day it is published. Article 41 does not set a separate effective date.

The proposal is the latest in a series of repeated attempts to tax online betting. Finance bills containing betting taxes failed to pass Congress in 2024 and 2025. In 2025, a temporary deposit-based VAT was applied. A subsequent emergency decree then introduced 19% VAT on gross gaming revenue for 2026, but this was suspended in January and cancelled in April after the state of emergency was declared invalid. The Petro administration, which is nearing the end of its term, had also proposed online betting VAT again in July.