There are diverse and extensive regulations issued by the different government actors for the sector of casinos or casinos (COLJUEGOS, DIAN, SUPERSALUD), and the panorama for the application of the regulations has become in some cases confusing and risky for the operators; it could be the lack of harmonization of the entities in the regulation of the localized gambling activities, which leads to an imminent danger in the way of contributing and paying taxes to these government actors.

These days the casino operators are again at risk of a serious problem with the State, in this case not with COLJUEGOS, as it has been almost always through the years; but with the DIAN, due precisely to this lack of regulation in conjunction with the government entities or at least the concordance between them; for example in this case between Coljuegos and the DIAN, given that they are two government entities very similar in nature, one oversees, regulates and collects the exploitation rights of the monopoly of the games of chance and the other oversees, regulates and collects National taxes, both for the subject of casinos should have the same definition of income, since for both it is said income which constitutes the taxable base for the payment of the obligations.

For COLJUEGOS in the year 2010 with Law 1393, Art 14, the National Government determined that the taxable income for the payment of exploitation rights were as follows "the operators of casinos will pay for exploitation rights the greater value resulting between what would generate the rates referred to in article 34 of Law 643 of 2001 or the percentage of twelve (12%) on the gross income minus the amount of the prizes paid".

Up to that point everything was fine, because this definition is correct, and this is how the operators of casinos declare it, but for the DIAN that in 2013 issued a concept number 045062, due to a concern of a taxpayer who asked the following question: What are the revenues that operators of casinos of luck and chance, such as bingos, casinos and electronic machines, must declare for purposes of income tax and complementary taxes?

The answer for the operators was fatal, and of course with obvious reasons, the DIAN does not know about casinos, it issues general rules and in this case it was not the exception and its answer was very clear and forceful "the operators of such games must declare their gross income corresponding to the total of the bets and for each machine, for which they will add the gross value bet by the bettors in each machine, bingo or casino in the corresponding fiscal period, and in accordance with the provisions of article 26 of the Tax Statute, they may subtract the prizes paid due to the relationship of causality, proportionality and necessity that occurs in the exercise of such economic activity to obtain the income, that is, they may deduct the total amount of the prizes paid for each of the games of chance located, thus obtaining the net taxable income on which the current rate of income tax and complementary taxes is applied.

"What this means is that each ticket must be reported as income and that the operator may deduct the prizes paid, but with the aggravating factor of complying with all the requirements of Article 107 of the E.T., in simple terms, what a problem!!! and serious. Because

1. The monthly income self-withholding is very high, with the aggravating factor that there will always be balances in favor and I do not believe that it is so easy to pay and much less to request. Since the operators know that their wallet can move in a month up to one billion, and their real net income of 60 or 70 million, i.e. incalculable figures.

2. Those prizes do not comply with the requirements of article 107 of the E.T., then from the beginning we would be taxed for income that we do not have and we could not deduct what we actually pay.

3. With this, the sector does not survive.

Currently there is an operator known to be under an inspection process by the DIAN for self-withholding of income, and the officials in charge are applying this concept.

The DIAN proceeds inviting the taxpayer to make the monthly withholding corrections, in the self-withholdings, to which they calculate penalties for inaccuracy and interest on arrears at usury rate, besides requesting correction of the income tax return with the same penalties and with the aggravating circumstance that they do not know expenses and costs and generate a value to be paid in income much higher than what had been initially declared.

Although the concept is from 2013, the risk is now more evident because the operator that is being audited by the Dian, has advanced processes and among them, it has requested the revocation of such concept together with the associations and the DIAN denied such revocation in February 2022 and ratified in the concept including some points due to a change of norm, such as IFRS.

Then, what would happen if the entity wants to carry out auditing processes to localized gambling operating companies at this moment? And even more in a time when the state needs so many resources. Worrying thoughts for all

It remains to be done, to unite once again to be able to carry out the corresponding actions, to demonstrate to the DIAN which are the real taxable income for income; that it is not a whim, that this is how it works and that in the world it is operated in the same way, in Chile, Peru, Mexico, USA and many others, the norm is clear for the concept of income from casino machines.