New sports tax includes horseracing? Italy yet to clarify

Italian minister Vicenzo Spadafora will clarify whther horse-racing will be included in the new tax on turnover

Italy’s agency for customs and monopolies (ADM) has requested sports minister Vicenzo Spadafora to clarify horseracing gambling is included in the country’s new 0.5% turnover tax.

In May, the country approved a new tax on all sports betting verticals to raise €90m to fund a rebirth for sports world after the pandemic’s horrific blow.

The issue came about when sources showed that the undersecretary of Agriculture Giuseppe L’Abbate informed the customs and monopolies agency in Italy that the horseracing sector is already underfunded as it is and asked them to exclude it from the tax hike, alongside with licensed betting exchanges as Flutter warned it might remove its Betfair exchange from the Italian market if this happens. He said:

The Revival Decree is clearly addressed to the sport sector, not to horse racing. A new tax will affect our attempts to support the Ippica.” 

Meanwhile Flutter Entertainment continued to questioned this move by the ADM saying how these tax increases have already made it almost impossible to keep doing business, especially since Betair have 96% of the market, and instead suggested that the government replaces the tax with an equivalent GGR tax rate for exhanges.