Online Gamblling TAX

Not sure. Are they going to try to charge betting companies 15% of gross profits on bets from UK customers? I suppose the government is annoyed that all the betting companies that agreed to come back a decade ago in return for FOBTs becoming viable have all gone back offshore.

I think it's to do with offshore tax evasion by companies based in one country (and where most of their customers are based) but registered in another for tax purposes, so avoiding paying tax where the customers are actually based.

I don't think it means what you are probably worried about, which is the customer getting taxed.

Basically, companies taking bets from customers in Britain will be taxed regardless whether they are based in the mainland UK or offshore, and UK firms winning money from foreigners will have a tax relief on those winnings.

Does this mean an end for the need for Betfair in Gib and Malta?

Yeah that all makes sense. Thanks

Is this why VC have closed my account todao...ie any UK based account that isnt losing enough to cover the new tax ?

I still don't see how the UK government can collect the tax, if the company based abroad just refuses to cough up.

The only sanction the government has is to refuse them permission to advertise. To go any further - refuse them permission to trade - would surely involve taking action against banks who process transactions with such companies, and that opens up a whole new can of worms. I can imagine banks simply refusing to process any gambling transactions at all for fear of getting caught out.

Are there any details as to what he tax actually is, and as you say how they can collect it ?  Ideally I suppose, it would make the firms that have relocated offshore come back and employ people over here. But it makes you wonder whether that would be worth the expense of doing that.

yeah pounf, i think vc were worried as to the amount you were winning - by shutting you do they have ensured that they will be able to cover the extra few million in tax

It'll work in a similar way to some of the European markets in that to court UK custom you will need a UK license and any profits via that UK license will be charged the tax. Betfair etc. will reapply for a UK license and all their UK custom will go via that (and be taxed) whereas their other custom will go through their Gib license and not be taxed. Shouldn't be any impact usability wise to UK customers, maybe an email saying Ts & Cs updated, that'd be it.

The UK government is naturally concerned about the national "betting ecosystem" and is aware that some companies are winning at a faster rate than others.  These "premium" companies will ba taxed at 50% of gross profits on winning years.  There is no rebate for losing years and neither expenses nor losses to other betting companies are deductible.... Yeah, right.

Im wondering if punters will swallow another increase of tax...

Seems like a lot of punters are quite worried for the wrong reasons by the the governments move against betting company tax exiles but rest assured the impact wont be felt by the customers as its not a tax that will be directly paid by them but by the company service supplier, Jabmast has put it in a nutshell very professionally in his earlier post IMO.

"wont be felt by the customers as its not a tax that will be directly paid by them but by the company service supplier"

If Company will pay bigger tax then customers will pay that tax then. Company has got money from their customers so someone will have to pay it.And As we know Betfair is not a charity company. They have no problem with taking money from us. I had hope in 2008 that PC coming only for while - coz of financial crisis. And meantime it rose. It's really disappointing...

Up until not that long ago my understanding was betfair paid tax directly in the uk and only recently (what, last year) moved to Malta?

They could always re-register back here, though of course they might e.g. implement PC3 (as I think you might suggest in another thread) to try and keep the share price up, but unless any new tax appplied to them went UP compared to before it would surely be hard for betfair to justify hammering customers when they managed fine for years until recently?

Bf pay the levy voluntarily and are not liable for British gross profits tax.

They still won't be liable for this tax for customers who aren't based in the UK.

My concern is not that it will impact on my bf betting in any way--more that other UK-facing books will have to give worse prices to compensate for the 280 million hit or so. My fear is that shop prices on the horses will become like shop horses on the footy--much worse than online.

Mar 23, 2012 -- 10:21PM, Just Checking wrote:

Up until not that long ago my understanding was betfair paid tax directly in the uk and only recently (what, last year) moved to Malta?They could always re-register back here, though of course they might e.g. implement PC3 (as I think you might suggest in another thread) to try and keep the share price up, but unless any new tax appplied to them went UP compared to before it would surely be hard for betfair to justify hammering customers when they managed fine for years until recently?

The exchange and poker moved to Gibraltar, think the casino games are in Malta.  As jabmast has said they will have to get a license from the uk.  The govt is changing the law when it gets parliamentary time.  The new law will be uk license and uk tax to take bets from uk punters.  Only thing that might stop it is the EU, but so many countries are in on the fleecing gamblers racket that I can't see it.

The freedom that the phrases "world-wide-web" and "global community" encapsulated is now the playground of governments policy makers who use it like a checkered board for playing chess with tax and personal freedoms, for instance try talking to Chinese citizens on msn or having a bet as an American and you will soon learn the meaning of enterprise as super powers make all the decisions for us and against our dreams and wishes.

Its a shame to see the UK goverment following suit in using the internet as a porn in a new game.

I'd imagine your chess board is quite ... "stimulating"

ha ha took me a while but I can see the error of my ways, very witty remark

askari1: If UK betting shops felt there was more profit to be made by reducing their in-shop prices on horses, they would be doing it already.

Every single time any company whines about having to pass on additional taxes to the customer, they are talking complete boll0cks. If they could charge the customer more, they would be doing it already. To suggest they've been restraining their profits up to now out of some charitable concern for their customers is just taking the p1ss.

"Every single time any company whines about having to pass on additional taxes to the customer, they are talking complete boll0cks."

So you expect Greggs to keep the price of sausage rolls the same and take a 20% hit?

Most incomes are already taxed but it seems the hawks at the IRS watch where it is spent in the hope of re-taxing the same money, why don't they throw themselves off a cliff and raise our interest exponentially.

Firms will have to separate out where punters are based. What will come next is taxing UK punters.
UK customers herded into a pen and people think the government will just open the gate and let them out?

Tax was never paid by the working classes until contemporary times and only paid by the big firms, now the working classes that earn decent wages have to tip 50% over and the poor get everything taxed in a stealth fashion from fish and chips too alcohol to pay for a dying economy ravaged by consecutive lame governments that played with interest rates and let banks lend money to anything with a pulse and a signature, utter symbolical behavior all round and a big mess now for all of us.

And they let British steel, car and many other industries fall flat on there back
while merely saying, well its competition and not our tax system so we will now get it from the lower sectors as we aint bothered and thats why we watch the rest of europe make cars and sell them while we wondered what really went wrong.

what concerns me is that these new snooping laws will give the likes of the GCHQ powers to investigate everything you do without needing to get a warrant.
Its bollox to suggest they will only track terrorists...the inland revenue have already openly admitted they use algorithms to track ebay 'businesses'.
Just like the patriot act, it will be used for manipulation for their own ends....be prepared to have the pips squeeked, but then you voted these toads in power