Sports betting regulation to kick in with gaps and a Lula U-turn

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took an unusual decision at the end of last year: he apparently changed his mind. On December 30, he issued a partial veto of a bill regulating sports betting, removing a provision that would have made all winnings below the monthly income tax threshold, currently BRL 2,112 (USD 431), tax-free.

Lula previously held a different view on the issue. 

As The Brazilian Report revealed back in August, his administration caved in to betting platforms and initially refrained from taxing all winnings from sports betting, despite technical recommendations from staff at the Finance Ministry and Brazil’s Federal Revenue Service.

Lula’s original provisional decree on the matter, issued in July, expired in November and is no longer in effect. Instead, legislative debate focused on a related bill introduced by the government at the same time, which was finally approved separately by both congressional chambers in late December.

After lawmakers sent the approved bill to the president, Lula vetoed the provision exempting winnings below the income tax threshold from levies — a 180-degree reversal of his position.

Lula’s partial veto made headlines in the Brazilian press as a matter...