LUN 25 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2024 - 11:55hs.
First this year

Congress could vote on Lula's vetoes on sports betting law in this Thursday's session

Senators and deputies participate this Thursday (9) in a session of the National Congress to analyze presidential vetoes. It will be the first deliberative meeting of this year. There are also two bills on the agenda. Scheduled for last week, the session was postponed by the president of Congress, Rodrigo Pacheco, after consensus among bench leaders.

The government is still negotiating which vetoes should be included on the voting ballot and which should be analyzed separately.

Among them, President Lula's partial veto (Veto 49/2023) of Law 14,790/2023, sanctioned on December 30, when six articles were vetoed, three of which dealt with taxation of bettors. Since March 3, the Plenary has not been able to vote on any matter before considering the veto.

After the presidential sanction, the Civil House sent message 749/2023 to the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), indicating the reasons for the vetoes on three paragraphs dealing with taxation of bettors and another three on commercial promotions.

In the reasons given for the veto on taxation of bettors, the message stated:

“The maintenance of §§1 and 3 of art. 31 of the Bill would give rise to Income Tax taxation different from that found in other lottery modalities, thus creating a distinction in tax conduct without a motivating reason for it. Furthermore, the maintenance of §2 of art. 31 of the PL would also go against tax equality, under the terms of art. 150, II, of the Federal Constitution, as it would introduce a logic of exemption from Income Tax in disagreement with the existing ordinary rules within the scope of receiving lottery prizes in general, established by art. 56 of Law No. 11,941, of 2008.”

The paragraphs provided for the collection of Income Tax on bettors' winnings that exceeded R$2,100 (US$ 415) annually, including gains and losses, that is, the net result of all bets.

To reject vetoes, an absolute majority of votes from deputies and senators is required, that is, 257 votes from deputies and 41 from senators, computed separately. If a lower number of votes for rejection are recorded in one of the Houses, the veto is maintained.

As soon as the vetoes are deliberated, the corresponding parts of the project are sent for promulgation by the President of the Republic, who has 48 hours to do so. If it does not do so within this period, it will be up to the president of the Senate to promulgate the law.

Source: GMB