The online gaming sector will exceed 1,000 million euros in turnover in Spain in 2023, 8.7% of the sector’s total income. Of all these sports bets there is one player who always wins: Treasury. These movements of money have their own taxation that does not exempt them from paying income taxes. In 2024, the declaration can be submitted to the Tax Agency from April 3, so you can now collect data on bets made, reinvestment and profits obtained in this way. Having all the data clear will allow you to easily modify the income draft and include all the data to pay the taxes corresponding to these profits.
When preparing the 2023 Income, sports betting profits must be included in personal income tax, even if you have won a single euro. In fact, in the presentation of the 2024 Income Campaign, the general director of the Tax Agency, Soledad Fernández Doctor, has assured that the Tax Agency will send 164,000 notices to people who have received prizes in online gambling throughout 2023 for the that they would have to declare.
Of course, to do so, the first thing is that you must be required to present the income tax.
When do you have to declare sports betting winnings?
At what amount do I have to declare sports betting winnings? The profits from sports betting are always declared in the income. In this the criterion is the same as with investments. The fact that the profits are small does not exempt the obligation to include them in the income.
However, the mere fact of having won money from sports betting does not mean that you are required to submit income. And if you don’t have to make the rent, you won’t have to pay taxes on that money.
In order for you to be obliged to pay income for sports betting winnings, one of the following cases must occur:
That your income from work income exceeds 22,000 euros, in which case you will be obliged to declare and add up the gambling winnings. If you have earned more than 15,000 euros from two or more payers and have received more than 1,500 euros from the second and subsequent payers. As in the previous case, you will be obliged to declare and add up the betting money. If you have won more than 1,000 euros with sports betting, regardless of the rest of your income.
These are the limits from which betting will make you have to make the income.
What betting profits must be declared?
The amount of money that must be declared and that is taken into account for that limit is determined by the profits obtained. What the Treasury takes into account is the amount you have earned. You will not have to pay taxes on the money you invest out of your pocket.
In addition, the Treasury allows you to restore profits and losses when making the calculation. That is, if you have won 500 euros in one bet, but you have lost 300 in another, the result will be a profit of 200 euros.
The simplest formula to calculate the capital gain or loss is to check the balance at the end of the year, restore the initial balance and the money withdrawals you have made.
Remember that the bonuses that the bookmaker has given you are also included in the winnings. For tax purposes, this bonus is like another benefit for your activity as a player.
If I reinvest the profits: do I have to declare it to the Treasury?
What happens if you reinvest the money in another bet? What if you don’t get the money from the betting house? In both cases you will have to continue paying taxes on the gain.
For tax purposes, the Treasury doesn’t care what you do with those profits. This is the same thing that happens with the taxation of stocks and investments in the stock market. Every time you sell a position, that gain or loss is taken into account when making the income.
In reality, there are very few financial products that don’t work like this. The exceptions to this general rule will be investment funds and PIAS, which are not taxed in the event of transfer.
And the same thing happens even if you don’t take the money out of the betting house. What matters from a tax point of view is the profit you have made, not that you have withdrawn the money to your checking account. In this, the operation is again the same as with stocks or cryptocurrencies.
How much taxes are paid on sports betting?
Where there are differences between online betting and most investments is in how those profits are taxed and the percentage of taxes to pay.
With some exceptions, investments are taxed within savings income, while profits from gambling and sports betting are taxed according to the general personal income tax base.
This means that these profits will be added to the salary and the rest of the income from work to be taxed according to the general scale, which is as follows:
