Where the credit card tax will go has been revealed: Citizens will pay the tax not collected from games of chance and gambling!

At the beginning of this year, the resources transferred to the Defense Industry Fund from taxes deducted from games of chance—primarily iddaa, sports toto, sports loto, national lottery, and horse racing—were halved by a presidential decree. 

According to the report by Erdoğan Süzer from Sözcü, the reduction in the tax decreased the revenue coming to the state from games of chance, meaning the tax amount to be paid by the companies, by approximately 22 billion liras.

This amount represents approximately twice the money that will be extracted from the public via the credit card levy.

With the Presidential Decree published in the Official Gazette dated December 28, 2023, the tax on games of chance was reduced from 10% to 5% for mutual betting based on sports competitions, from 14% to 7% for horse racing, and from 20% to 10% for other games of chance.

 Since the taxpayer for these levies is the Demirören Group, the government has, in a sense, provided a tax favor to this group.

While the majority of the tax collected from games of chance is used for defense, it is also utilized for purposes such as university student dormitories, child protection services, and national promotion.

Last year, 135 billion liras in resources were transferred to the Defense Industry Fund. 

33 BILLION TL TAX ADVANTAGE

Last year, 28.5 billion liras entered the state treasury from games of chance.

While preparing this year's budget, it was estimated, taking inflation into account, that 55 billion liras in tax revenue would come to the state from games of chance in 2024.

However, when half of the tax was pruned, the revenue also fell by half.

The revenue received in the first 8 months of this year remained at 23.2 billion liras. By the end of the year, at most 33 billion TL in tax revenue is expected from games of chance.

If the tax had not been reduced, the annual tax to be collected would have been 66 billion liras.

Official data shows that the tax favor provided to the company is around 33 billion liras.