Brazil clarifies income tax rules on online betting and fantasy sports winnings

Brazil’s Federal Revenue Service (RFB) has issued Normative Instruction No. 2,299, shifting individual income tax on online betting to an annual net-winnings basis and creating a new “ComprovaBet” statement that operators must provide to bettors.

Brazil’s Federal Revenue Service has published Normative Instruction (IN) RFB No. 2,299 of 17 December 2025 in the Official Gazette, updating the general income tax rules in IN 1,500/2014 and detailing how individuals must calculate and declare Personal Income Tax (IRPF) on online betting gains. The new rules apply to winnings from fixed-odds betting lotteries, online gaming and fantasy sports, as defined in Article 31 of Law No. 14,790/2023.

The instruction formally adds net prizes from fixed-odds bets and fantasy sports to the list of taxable items in Article 21 of IN 1,500/2014. From the 2025 calendar year onward, individuals must compute, once a year, their net result for three categories of bets – real sports events, virtual online games and fantasy sports – by summing all winnings and subtracting all losses across every operator with which they bet. The taxable base is the portion of this annual net prize that exceeds the first band of the IRPF annual table (currently BRL 16,754.34 and set to rise to BRL 17,640 from 2026), and the applicable rate is 15 per cent.

In practice, this means bettors will no longer be taxed on each winning ticket in isolation. Instead, they can offset losses against winnings within each category over the year before calculating tax, which aligns the regulation with the original intent of Law 14,790 to tax “net prizes” at 15 per cent. The existing exemption for low-value winnings remains in place: individual prizes of up to BRL 2,259.20 per bet continue to be exempt from IRPF.

The reform also changes who actually settles the tax. Rather than relying only on withholding at source, bettors now have explicit obligations: they must determine their annual net result, calculate the 15 per cent tax due on the amount above the exempt annual band in March and pay the corresponding IRPF by the last business day of April using a dedicated RFB application. This brings betting winnings into the same calendar and workflow as other personal income tax items and gives the tax authority a clearer view of high-frequency or high-value bettors.

To make this feasible, IN 2,299 creates the ComprovaBet – an official, standardised electronic statement that fixed-odds and fantasy sports operators must provide to each player by the last business day of February of the following year. The document must include the operator’s CNPJ, the bettor’s CPF, the total net result by type of bet across all of the operator’s brands, and the balances of the bettor’s graphic accounts at the beginning and end of the year. With ComprovaBet, taxpayers will have a consolidated record of their betting activity, while the RFB gains a powerful data source to cross-check declarations.

For licensed operators, the new framework means additional compliance and systems work: they must correctly track player-level results, issue ComprovaBet statements on time and ensure their reporting aligns with IRPF rules, under penalty of sanctions for missing or inaccurate information. For Brazil’s rapidly expanding online betting and fantasy sports market, the instruction is another step in locking taxation into a more transparent, data-driven model that combines a uniform 15 per cent rate on net winnings with tighter control over both operators and high-value players.