Stop us if you’ve heard this one before, but Kenya’s on-again, off-again plans to reduce its new 35% gambling tax are back on-again, at least for today.
On Monday, Business Daily reported that Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta (pictured) had refused to sign the new Finance Bill, 2018, and had instead sent parliament a memo asking them to reintroduce a measure to reduce the country’s new uniform gambling tax rate from 35% to 15%.
If you’re just joining us, Kenyatta himself signed legislation in June 2017 that boosted gambling taxes from as low as 5% (for lotteries) and 7.5% (for betting operators) to a new uniform 35% rate for all gambling products. The new rate officially kicked in on January 1.
Since Kenyatta signed on the bottom line, gaming companies have fiercely lobbied legislators to reduce their tax rate to something they believe doesn’t make their Kenyan operations unworkable. Two such reprieve efforts have already gone down to defeat, including an amendment to the Finance Bill that was rejected earlier this month.