Budget announcement - gambling taxation

GaryQQQ

George Osborne has just announced that in future online gambling 'will be taxed based on the location of customer', without going into further detail.

Does anybody know if this will this affect Sky Poker and/or internet poker in general?

drumahai05

In Response to Budget announcement - gambling taxation:

George Osborne has just announced that in future online gambling 'will be taxed based on the location of customer', without going into further detail. Does anybody know if this will this affect Sky Poker and/or internet poker in general?
Posted by GaryQQQ

sounds like they cant get it out of the operator so they will get it out of the players, got no problem with that so long as they bring regulation of the game under government control.

DOHHHHHHH

Was hoping there'd thread like this, n1 Gary. Very confusing ......

Someone clever educate me plz

djblacke04

well i have heard that all online operators are being forced to have the location of their operations inside a taxable juridiction, so  for example sky poker will have to be based in UK not in Alderney...so all tax breaks for offshore companies are effectively closed. 

i dont think it affects the individual at all

AcidMan27

Yeah that's the way I read it too.

It's the operators who are based outside of the uk who will be affected.

Lambert180

Oh, good stuff!

AcidMan27

In Response to Re: Budget announcement - gambling taxation:

well i have heard that all online operators are being forced to have the location of their operations inside a taxable juridiction, so  for example sky poker will have to be based in UK not in Alderney...so all tax breaks for offshore companies are effectively closed.   i dont think it affects the individual at all
Posted by djblacke04

Just a quick mention that Sky Poker is already based in the UK as far as I know.

This just means other sites will pay tax if someone from the uk is playing on that site.

I think.

Machka

In Response to Budget announcement - gambling taxation:

George Osborne has just announced that in future online gambling 'will be taxed based on the location of customer', without going into further detail. Does anybody know if this will this affect Sky Poker and/or internet poker in general?
Posted by GaryQQQ

Good luck to them trying to make that work.  Although I'll imagine they'll spend a good few hundred million pounds trying.

FlashFlush

I'm sure Tikay will come up with all the info once he knows himself. Clever lad when it comes to all that sort of thing is our Tikay.

jakally

In Response to Re: Budget announcement - gambling taxation:

In Response to Budget announcement - gambling taxation : Good luck to them trying to make that work.  Although I'll imagine they'll spend a good few hundred million pounds trying.
Posted by Machka

I have not followed the budget, so am flying a bit blind, but this sounds similar to how it works in France, Italy etc... (Hence why P.Stars have had to create a .fr site).

NColley

sounds like sky will have to become UK only?

and pokerstars will have to create a .uk site?

AcidMan27

Everybody in Doncaster has to pay an extra £1 in tax on each can of cider.

CrazyBen23

In Response to Re: Budget announcement - gambling taxation:

Everybody in Doncaster has to pay an extra £1 in tax on each can of cider.
Posted by AcidMan27

I don't mind that, desperados ftwww! DOH's gunna be bankrupt tho

NColley

reading it again I don't think it will affect skypoker playerbase if skypoker is UK based.

pokerstars/ other rooms that are based abroad will have to pay tax to the UK goverment on UK player based contributions (however that will be worked out)

djblacke04

In Response to Re: Budget announcement - gambling taxation:

In Response to Re: Budget announcement - gambling taxation : Just a quick mention that Sky Poker is already based in the UK as far as I know. This just means other sites will pay tax if someone from the uk is playing on that site. I think.
Posted by AcidMan27

Sky is based on ALDERNEY for poker purposes.

DAIBOOT

A new Machine Games Duty for the gambling industry will come in, at a standard rate of 20%, with a lower rate for "low-prize" machines of 5% of net takings.

The new gambling tax regime will also be altered to discourage online gambling firms from moving offshore.

bigal36903

they will end up not letting off shore gambling.  due to that they are missing lot of tox, they are closing a lot of loop holes in the tax laws this year... 

thankfully not at my level.. 


even money in  a swizz account is now taxable...

SoLack

This is what it says:

Gambling taxation
1.204 The current taxation regime for remote gambling has allowed operators to avoid paying UK gambling duties by basing their operations abroad. To broaden the tax base and provide a fairer basis for competition between UK and overseas remote gambling operators, Budget 2012 announces that the Government will move to a tax regime that ensures operators anywhere in the world pay gambling duties on gross profits generated from customers based in the UK. This is in line with the actions of several other European countries.

Sounds to me like it means a tax hike for Sky and all other operators who base their operation in tax havens.  How, or whether this will passed onto their punters is their business.

ACEGOONER

In Response to Re: Budget announcement - gambling taxation:

This is what it says: Gambling taxation 1.204 The current taxation regime for remote gambling has allowed operators to avoid paying UK gambling duties by basing their operations abroad. To broaden the tax base and provide a fairer basis for competition between UK and overseas remote gambling operators, Budget 2012 announces that the Government will move to a tax regime that ensures operators anywhere in the world pay gambling duties on gross profits generated from customers based in the UK. This is in line with the actions of several other European countries. Sounds to me like it means a tax hike for Sky and all other operators who base their operation in tax havens.  How, or whether this will passed onto their punters is their business.
Posted by SoLack

Easy, either increase rake, or more likely reduce rakeback. But this depends on whether sky's accountants can help them avoid the new betting duties. Avoiding tax is not illegal, evading it is. 

BrownnDog

One of the reasons gambling tax was abolished was because the exchequer was losing out to companies moving offshore. So the worrying thing is, if they force companies that deal with UK players to pay business taxes here anyway, then it will leave the door open for a direct gaming tax on the consumer to return in the future. In fact, it is a strong possibility. 

drumahai05

In Response to Re: Budget announcement - gambling taxation:

This is what it says: Gambling taxation 1.204 The current taxation regime for remote gambling has allowed operators to avoid paying UK gambling duties by basing their operations abroad. To broaden the tax base and provide a fairer basis for competition between UK and overseas remote gambling operators, Budget 2012 announces that the Government will move to a tax regime that ensures operators anywhere in the world pay gambling duties on gross profits generated from customers based in the UK. This is in line with the actions of several other European countries. Sounds to me like it means a tax hike for Sky and all other operators who base their operation in tax havens.  How, or whether this will passed onto their punters is their business.
Posted by SoLack

thats what i said i think:))

ACEGOONER

In Response to Re: Budget announcement - gambling taxation:

One of the reasons gambling tax was abolished was because the exchequer was losing out to companies moving offshore. So the worrying thing is, if they force companies that deal with UK players to pay business taxes here anyway, then it will leave the door open for a direct gaming tax on the consumer to return in the future. In fact, it is a strong possibility. 
Posted by BrownnDog

Thats not true, the old tax regime where punters had to pay 9p in the pound meant that a lot of uk bookies based their operations overseas. The implications of this was that punters started to place bets with offshore bookies meaning that they could avoid paying betting levies. 

The gentlemans agreement between the government and the gaming companies was that they would bring their betting operations back to the UK and pay corporation tax. Naturally with the abolition of betting levies there was an explosion in betting in the UK and the bookies made bigger profits, paid more tax, everyone was happy. It was a win win situation.