The Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) said in a statement yesterday that the government’s tourism tax waiver has now been expanded to include tourism businesses such as hotels, nightclubs, bars, saunas, gyms, massage parlours and karaoke lounges starting today until the end of the year.
According to the statement, earlier this year the local government launched the “2021 Scheme for Employment Security, Economic Stabilisation and Care for Residents’ Livelihoods”, and part of the measure aims to “reduce or exempt a range of taxes and extend the coverage of the tourism tax exemption”. The statement noted that the tourism tax exemption is expected to benefit over 370 tourism businesses and set to cost the government 379 million patacas in lost revenue.
The statement said that according to the provisions of the articles on tourism tax exemption in the Budget Bill for the Fiscal Year 2021, as amended by Law No. 3/2021, the businesses concerned will be exempt from the tourism tax levied at 5 percent on their services provided, effective from today until December 31.
The statement underlined the aim of the tourism tax exemption is to support the tourism sector and ease the sector’s burden. However, the statement added that if any tourism business levies tourism tax on consumers illegally during the tax exemption period it will be taxed accordingly and be subject to a fine.
According to the statement, MGTO will continue to focus on the supervision of all tourism businesses’ activities. The statement reaffirmed that the tourism businesses are obliged to comply with all regulations and “rigorously” follow the government’s COVID-19 prevention measures, in order to safeguard Macau’s image as a healthy and quality destination.
This photo taken last year shows what is now The Londoner in Cotai. Photo: Prisca Tang
