Senator proposes a 15% tax on deposits, but experts argue it is unconstitutional as it constitutes confiscation.

Senator Alessandro Vieira (MDB-SE) presented the report on Bill 5.582/2025, which creates the Contribution for Intervention in the Economic Domain on betting (CIDE-Bets). The document was presented to the Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) of the Federal Senate this Wednesday (3). The proposal establishes a rate of 15% on amounts transferred by individuals to fixed-odds betting platforms. The decision of the rapporteur of the Anti-Faction Bill to introduce the 'Cide of bets' is questionable and may be litigated in the Supreme Federal Court due to the constitutionality of the proposal.

Senator Marcos Rogério (PL-RO) requested a review of the report after its presentation, which delayed the continuation of the project's analysis in the committee. The proposed contribution would directly affect deposits made by bettors, not the revenue of companies in the sector.

Experts consulted by BNLData identified problems with the proposal. According to them, the initiative presents characteristics of unconstitutionality because it constitutes confiscation, since the 15% tax rate on deposits would be equivalent to approximately 80% of the real revenue of betting companies.

Technical analysis indicates that deposits made by bettors do not constitute revenue or income for the platforms. The gross revenue of the operators is calculated by the difference between the total amount wagered and the prizes paid to the winners, and this is the correct basis for taxation.

Currently, this result is already subject to a 12% contribution as mandated by law, in addition to other taxes such as PIS, COFINS, and ISS. Companies also pay IRPJ and CSLL on their profits.

Senator Alessandro Vieira's proposal, by transforming transfers into a taxable base, creates a taxable event that does not correspond to the economic reality of betting. Since operators retain on average only 15% of the deposited amounts, taxing the full value of the contributions would result in taxation equivalent to 100% of operational revenue.

Experts also classified the proposal as unfeasible, indicating that the text demonstrates a lack of understanding of how the online betting market works. A critical point identified is the choice of the calculation basis for the contribution.

Another aspect highlighted by experts is that the platform operator acts as a custodian of the funds. Even after the deposit, the resources remain the bettor's property until they are actually used for betting.

The technical analysis also identified procedural flaws in the proposal, since, according to experts, tax increases cannot be introduced through an amendment to an original proposal, as is the case with Bill 5.582/2025.

According to the opinion presented by Vieira, the resources collected from the CIDE-Bets tax, estimated at R$ 30 billion, will be allocated to the National Public Security Fund and will have a specific budget line to guarantee its application in the fight against organized crime. "We opted to create a CIDE-Bets tax which, according to an estimate based on data provided by the Central Bank in a public hearing, could allocate up to R$ 30 billion per year to combat organized crime," states a section of the report.