Government to introduce a gambling tax

Back in the 2011 Budget, the Minister proposed a withholding tax on gambling winnings. The Minister proposed that, with effect from April 2012, all winnings above R25,000, including pay-outs from the National Lottery, would be subject to a final withholding tax at the rate of 15%. The Minister stated that this was in line with practice in a number of other countries, including the United States of America. The aim for introducing this withholding tax on gambling winnings was to discourage excessive gambling.

21 Feb 2019 1 min read Special Edition Budget Speech Alert 2019 Article

In the 2012 Budget government proposed the introduction of a national gambling tax based on gross gambling revenue. The gambling tax was to be introduced with effect from 1 April 2013. The proposal at the time was for the 1% levy to fund rehabilitation and awareness raising programmes to mitigate the negative effects of excessive gambling. In the 2012 Budget the government proposed an additional 1% levy “on a uniform provincial gambling tax base. A similar base will be used to tax the national lottery”.

In the 2019 Budget, the Minister announced that government intends to publish draft legislation pertaining to a gambling tax for public comment in 2019.

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