Dominican DGJA hands tax authority provisional database of regularised gaming venues

The Dominican Republic's Dirección General de Juegos de Azar (DGJA) delivered a provisional and conditional database of establishments enrolled in its Regularisation Plan to the Dirección General de Impuestos Internos (DGII) on Monday 19 October. The transfer is intended to help bring the registered establishments into the national tax system and to strengthen tax control over gambling activity.

DGJA director general Teófilo "Quico" Tabar presented the register to DGII head Pedro Urrutia Sangiovanni. The handover falls under collaboration agreements between the two bodies aimed at identifying the operators taking part in the regularisation process and easing their entry into the Dominican tax system. According to the institutions, the database will support the steps needed to integrate the registered establishments into the national tax system and to promote compliance with their tax obligations.

The authorities did not state how many establishments the register contains, nor did they detail the remaining stages for completing their incorporation into the tax regime. The DGJA said the action formed part of its regularisation of the sector, promoting organisation, transparency and compliance with current tax provisions.

The transfer follows other recent DGJA measures to organise the gambling market. In October the regulator announced new provisions restricting the opening of establishments and granted an extraordinary period of 30 calendar days for operators to declare voluntarily points of sale installed irregularly. The resolutions also provide for possible closures and administrative sanctions, as well as possible criminal or tax action in cases of non-compliance.

The DGJA was created under Law 86-26 to begin a new regulatory and institutional stage for the gambling market. The Regularisation Plan is a process aimed at regularising establishments in the sector and helping them comply with current provisions, including their tax obligations.