Around 20 bingo halls are part of the unión, the majority of which are based in Buenos Aires Province.
Judges Rodolfo Facio and Carlos Grecco concluded that bingo hall owners had failed to demonstrate that the additional burden that Congress had approved for the gaming industry in general was “confiscatory”, nor did bingo hall owners face a concrete risk of going bankrupt over time.
The judges ruled that all bingo halls should continue with their claims in courts, where a judge may order accounting surveys necessary to assess the impact of the tax modification and, when the time comes fix the court’s position in a judgment.
When requesting the suspension of the new tax, bingo hall owners belonging to UADEE argued that the new tax was “confiscatory” and that the increase of 35 to 41.5 per cent in income tax enshrined by law 27,346 and decree 179/17 signed by President Mauricio Macri, could lead to bankruptcies.
The ruling to suspend the tax was so controversial that in December 2017, Deputy Elisa Carrió along with other lawmakers from the Civic Coalition-ARI party presented a request for the impeachment and dismissal of Judge Enrique Lavié. For legislators, the judge’s decision was “arbitrary and biased” and “inappropriate for a judge of the Nation” in that it benefited “game entrepreneurs.”
Source: GMB / G3 Newswire
