The Monthly Tax Collection Report of the Spanish Ministry of Finance has revealed that in the first six months of 2020, lotteries contributed €256.1m in taxes on prizes. The figure represents a 1.3% increase over the same period in 2019, when the ministry collected €252.8m.
The Tax Agency said that €180m was collected through the Personal Income Tax (IRPF). Although they were 22.2% lower than in 1H19, the collection exceeded the numbers of previous years due to an increase in the Corporate Tax from €22m in 2019 to €76m in 2020.
The 20% tax on lottery prizes was established by the Government of Mariano Rajoy back in 2012. On January 1, 2013, the tax on prizes over €2,500 came into force in all Spanish jurisdictions.
In 2018, the minimum to be subject to those taxes was updated to €10,000, in 2019 to €20,000 and in 2020 to €40,000.
Last year, the Ministry of Finance collected €365.2m in taxes from lotteries, or a 12.3% drop from what it perceived in 2018. The first six months of 2020 show an improvement when compared to the first half of 2019, although authorities expect a sharp fall between July and December.
ONCE, one of the state lotteries, recently showed that it registered a 4.4% increase in sales last year. Revenue from the sale of lottery products totalled €2.25bn, while turnover from social enterprises reached €978.8m and allowed ONCE ‘to be able to face this difficult 2020 with less risks.’