General Betting
I'm no lawyer, so can anyone answer the following
1 - Does EU legislation override this 'point of consumption' angle that is the basis of the govt argument?
2 - If you consider 'point of consumption' - the UK punters' only input is to request a bet - the offshore firm receive the bet, check,accept & process the bet (payment could be from anywhere in the world) and generate a receipt/trans no. - all done offshore -- where has the consumption taken place? - definitely NOT at the punters end!!
Maybe Mr Cruddas could air his thoughts
Lots of other online industries use exactly the same tactics to reduce their tax bills. If the government can get this 'point of consumption' concept to stick, what happens to them?
e.g. Google apparently serves up adverts from computers in particular countries so that the click on an advert can be claimed as revenue in that (tax-friendly) country. Amazon UK is constructed to make no profit from UK customers yet the products are delivered from the UK, etc etc etc.
These online companies utilising all these tax avoidance schemes are just playing into Govts' arms.
Giving them all the excuses they need to go after them.
Bad business policy imv.
Jun 26, 2012 -- 7:15PM, Toffee Pops wrote:
The way they think it will work is by telling bookmakers if they don't sign up to it then they will not be able to advertise in the UK. Any firm that is happy not advertising in the UK will be able to get away with not paying.
No they don't. They are trying to get this going as a standalone concept. Their original idea was to insist on UK licensing (and obv taxation) for access to UK customers. It appears that some bright spark suggested that they could try to get the money without doing anything for it and they are having a go. I predict legal action and fail in European courts. Also it is worth noting that the EU looks like it's going to do something about a directive in the next couple of years, so hopefully anyone in the EU will be able to look for the best value and bet where they want.
