Truths and lies about slot machines in Peru

On Thursday, September 13, 2019, Legislative Decree No. 1419 was published in the Official Gazette El Peruano, which includes the I.S.C. (SELECTIVE CONSUMPTION TAX) to casinos and slot machines.

According to this rule, as of January 1, 2019, casinos and slot machines pay a fixed monthly tax for each machine, according to its production. Additional tax to the special taxes they have been paying.
This norm was promulgated by virtue of the delegation of powers granted by Congress through Law No. 30823; and like all the norms granted by virtue of this legal mechanism, it has been subject to review by the Congress of the Republic, in accordance with the provisions of article 104 of the Political Constitution.

Within the framework of this parliamentary control, months before - before being closed-; The Constitution Committee of the Congress of the Republic issued a report concluding that Legislative Decree No. 1419 DOES NOT COMPLY with the provisions of the constitutional framework, and therefore recommends the total repeal of the rule.

Unfortunately, this process of legislative control under the Constitution was cut with the dissolution of Congress. Pending the unconstitutionality claim formulated against this new tax, before the Constitutional Court - TC. In this sense, we demand that this controversy be maintained in the technical-constitutional sphere; and we regret the poorly informed opinions, so we allow ourselves to clarify the following:

It is said that games of chance generate gambling problems.
In this regard, we must indicate that the figures shown by the supposed specialists do not have any scientific support, and forget that Peru is at the forefront of the region in this matter since the Law No. 29907 - Law came into force in July 2002. of Prevention and Treatment of Gambling in Casino and Slot Machine games rooms -. Under this rule, an exclusion registry has been created and gaming rooms are prohibited from allowing registrants to enter. The same that until July of this year do not exceed five hundred people nationwide. (From a population of 30 million inhabitants).

It is also said that casinos does not pay taxes.
Casinos have paid and continue to pay not only the taxes that affect business activity in the country, they have also paid in special taxes more than 1,000 million dollars.

In recent years, the collection for the special gaming tax created in 1999 has reached approximately $ 100 million annually, which is equivalent to 60% of the collection for the Special Mining Tax, for example, or more than double the collection for Tax on Financial Transactions, according to the SUNAT Tax Note; Thus, it is objectively demonstrated that for an economy like Peru, the current impact of the activity of casinos and slot machines is more than reasonable and this has been confirmed by repeated judgments of the Constitutional Court.

It is said that it is an activity without control
This activity has very strict regulations, for example, Peru is one of the few countries in the world that requires online and real-time control of operations. By virtue of Law No. 29829 of January 2012, all operators are required to install a system interconnected with SUNAT and MINCETUR to control and supervise operations in real time.
In the same sense, we must say that the Peruvian regulator maintains high quality standards in its control and oversight work, having been repeatedly awarded for its excellent work, currently constituting a model for the region.

It is said that casinos do not bring anything positive to society.
According to the SUNAT website, the gaming industry in Peru officially employs 76,897 (seventy-six thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven) people.

Finally we must indicate that today the Peruvian Constitutional Court - TC rejected the unconstitutionality claim formulated against this new tax (ISC). The details of the sentence have not yet been published, but the official website of said institution indicates that the vote was four votes in favor of unconstitutionality; and three against, declaring the request for not reaching the five votes required by law to be unfounded.

In this sense, we consider that the great challenge of the Executive Branch and the Ministry of Economy and Finance - MEF is, instead of continuing to increase pressure on formal businessmen; attend to the high degree of informality that exists in the country.

In the request for delegation of powers, which gave rise to Legislative Decree No. 1419 now under debate, the President of the Council of Ministers bases his request that the 2017 tax burden amounted to 12.9% of GDP, the lowest in recent years. years. In addition, it highlights the high degrees of non-compliance in Income Tax and General Sales Tax.

However, we wonder what the State's response was to address this reality. The MEF really considers that demanding more taxes from companies that already pay their taxes will improve this indicator.
We demand coherence in the face of the analysis of the current situation, we consider that the pending task of the MEF is parallel to the announced measures to reactivate the post-COVID-19 economy, implement policies to formalize the Peruvian economy, we are convinced that simply demand a higher payment to the Few companies that have been fulfilling their obligations is not a constitutional path.

Constante Traverso
Lawyer
APEJA President