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03 Apr 23 22:04
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Date Joined: 30 Jan 05
| Topic/replies: 15,742 | Blogger: screaming from beneaththewaves's blog
Abolished the on-course betting tax in 1987 and changed my life.

God bless you, sir.

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Replies: 63
By:
sparrow
When: 03 Apr 23 22:08
"Betting duty" at 6.75% was applied to sports bets until 2001 when it was replaced by a 15% tax on gross profits
By:
screaming from beneaththewaves
When: 03 Apr 23 22:23
You should have gone to the track and taken advantage of Lawson's 0% betting duty then, sparrow. Wealthy men came and brought their money from all over the world. You suddenly had the likes of Australian native-art dealer Wayne Heathcote standing next to Terry Barfoot on the rails at Plumpton laying bets of £50,000 to £40,000 on an amateur riders' chase.

A small example of how getting rid of tax makes a nation wealthier.
By:
sparrow
When: 03 Apr 23 22:29
I was working full time in those days keeping the country running, screaming. So only able to go racing now and again.
By:
screaming from beneaththewaves
When: 03 Apr 23 22:35
I was working full-time too. Clock-watching in an office, translating endless piles of pharma patents and clinical trials, sharing a rented house. If it hadn't been for Lawson, I'd still be there to this day.
By:
sparrow
When: 03 Apr 23 22:36
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/front_page/1207748.stm
By:
screaming from beneaththewaves
When: 03 Apr 23 22:42
^ Yes. And there's Brown ruining everything. It was Brown's reduction of the off-course tax to zero % which enabled low-margin FOBTs to suddenly become viable.
By:
pandora1963
When: 03 Apr 23 23:46
yep, he certainly changed many lives, for the worse, especially if you was poor
By:
stewarts rise
When: 04 Apr 23 08:16
Whether you loved or loathed him, he also gave us Nigella and that will do for me.
By:
dave1357
When: 04 Apr 23 08:51
screaming from beneaththewaves • April 3, 2023 10:42 PM BST
^ Yes. And there's Brown ruining everything. It was Brown's reduction of the off-course tax to zero % which enabled low-margin FOBTs to suddenly become viable.


pish. offshore phone betting was becoming available, the internet was on the way and not one single person would have been betting in a shop paying tax, if they could have been betting online tax free.
By:
formoftheace
When: 04 Apr 23 09:03
Part of Thatcher….move along…
By:
salmon spray
When: 04 Apr 23 09:20
Fell out with Thatcher actually.
By:
pandora1963
When: 04 Apr 23 09:43
Fell out with thatcher? Big deal, he was still her chancellor and wreaked havoc in the 80s, making the poor poorer like the Tories always do
By:
formoftheace
When: 04 Apr 23 09:44
Exactly
By:
formoftheace
When: 04 Apr 23 09:45
Ripped the heart from the Scottish grafters…..never be forgiven…
By:
salmon spray
When: 04 Apr 23 10:05
I wasn't trying to defend him. I agree totally about the 80s.
By:
CLYDEBANK29
When: 04 Apr 23 10:55
When he cut the top tax rate to 40%, the government raised more money in tax.
By:
dave1357
When: 04 Apr 23 11:05
rofl the tax cutters always say that
By:
CLYDEBANK29
When: 04 Apr 23 11:09
Sky News actually.
By:
dave1357
When: 04 Apr 23 11:24
oh that changes everything
By:
CLYDEBANK29
When: 04 Apr 23 11:25
just pretend it isn't true dave
By:
dave1357
When: 04 Apr 23 11:29
this government just put taxes up and raised more tax. The tax revenue depends on the wider economy. It is nonsense to say that a particular cut was the sole cause of the higher tax take.
By:
dave1357
When: 04 Apr 23 11:31
The rate was too high at that time, so I don't disagree with the cut, just the bollocks that is spouted about it leading to a higher tax take.
By:
CLYDEBANK29
When: 04 Apr 23 11:31
no one saying it is
By:
CLYDEBANK29
When: 04 Apr 23 11:32
re "the sole cause"
By:
dave1357
When: 04 Apr 23 11:33
well why bring it up then?
By:
CLYDEBANK29
When: 04 Apr 23 11:36
People can come to their own minds whether it was instrumental or not.  I'm sure political ideology is the main driver for most people in that regard.
By:
sageform
When: 04 Apr 23 11:48
No question that the Labour 90% plus income tax did lower tax income. Most of the 60s pop stars moved their domicile abroad along with many other wealthy individuals. Most have never returned. So instead of paying 40-45% they paid none. 13 years ago, just as the coalition came to power, the Libdems insisted on raising capital gains tax dramatically. I was expecting to pay 18% indexed for 30 years on the sale of my mother's house but when they raised the tax and abolished the indexation I decided to consult a tax consultant who I paid £3000 in fees. Saved me £100,000 tax as he was able to find a legal way to avoid it. I probably would not have bothered at the old rate so raising the tax cost the revenue about £75k from me alone.
By:
CLYDEBANK29
When: 04 Apr 23 11:54
When Betfair introduced premium charges, turnover went from steadily rising to steadily falling.  Plenty of other factors.  I'm sure tax rate for Betfair increased short term, but then Betfair users had no other options.  Had there been a German, US or Indian alternative, I'm sure plenty of users would have gone there within weeks.
By:
dave1357
When: 04 Apr 23 12:10
So instead of paying 40-45% they paid none.

Most have never returned.



So how did lowering tax increase the tax take from these individuals?

If the tax rate was lowered to zero, how much extra tax would be collected?
By:
sageform
When: 04 Apr 23 12:10
Exactly. I used a telephone bookmaker in Gibraltar for years before the tax was abolished here and he stood the 4% tax there so I paid none. Several of my bigger punting friends refused to believe it was legal but it was.
By:
dave1357
When: 04 Apr 23 12:18
CLYDEBANK29 • April 4, 2023 11:54 AM BST
When Betfair introduced premium charges, turnover went from steadily rising to steadily falling.


Once again a Post hoc ergo propter hoc. 

Betting ecosystems can't be compared to economies as they are zero sum and are entirely dependent on new losers. Existing winners (PC payers) would just cannibalize each other without new losers.
By:
CLYDEBANK29
When: 04 Apr 23 12:20
My dad worked for British Steel from leaving university to retirement.  It was the tax treatment (specifically capital allowances) that meant the UK couldn't compete with their German counterparts.
By:
CLYDEBANK29
When: 04 Apr 23 12:21
and led to the end of British Steel/Tata Steel.  Tax treatment is all important in competing on a global level
By:
sparrow
When: 04 Apr 23 12:23
Spend all your life paying tax at PAYE and see how you would like that.
By:
dave1357
When: 04 Apr 23 12:34
So CLYDEBANK, iyo, the massive deindustrialisation that took place under Thatcher could have been avoided by tweaking capital allowances?
By:
sageform
When: 04 Apr 23 12:47
No, it would have taken a ban or high taxes/duties on imports or a reduction in UK wages to third world levels.
By:
CLYDEBANK29
When: 04 Apr 23 12:57
I can only talk about British Steel dave.  My dad worked in British Steel through the from nationalisation to private and the drop in the work force by 90%. Things I remember him saying when it is a national industry were.. you could be totally incompetent, but that the only way you could be sacked was for having sex or fraud (he did spend some early years as a union rep).  That you'd regularly have 3 people "doing" a job when only 1 person was needed.  The capital allowance issue I refer to was not under Thatcher.  Was prolly under late Blair/Brown or Cameron/LibDems.  He'd retired by then but was very well respected and often asked for advice, and was still fully aware of the industry.  He retired at 60 and he did say that the British Steel pension was the best in the UK, worth 25-30% on top of your salary.  Worth noting when public sector workers cry foul that their pensions may well be far superior to private sector workers
By:
CLYDEBANK29
When: 04 Apr 23 13:04
The specific issue was cheap Chinese Steel.  The Germans introduced changes to capital allowances to allow their steel industry to compete.  The UK didn't.
By:
dave1357
When: 04 Apr 23 13:04
Was prolly under late Blair/Brown or Cameron/LibDems.

British Steel was nothing by then in comparison to its heyday.
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