Betting duty announced on "remote" betting

Just heard that, don't know what the implication is?

I assume that tax will be paid by Betfair / Purple Site - as opposed to the individual punter.

Depends what rate its set at.

"I will be introducing legislation to facilitate the extension of betting duty to remote betting and the introduction of betting intermediaries duty to cover betting exchanges."

Hopefully it won't be passed on by Betfair

Betfair have informed me they will be picking up the Tab..!

Dec 6, 2011 -- 4:52PM, scoobyknows wrote:

Betfair have informed me they will be picking up the Tab..!

and then dropping it

Hopefully it wont be passed on by betfair,thats a sweet comment......what you think they will do,swallow it themselves......Jesus there is some doughnuts on this thing......

Betfair have probably been collecting this a while now with the premium charges and all. Hopefully they will take the hit anyway as they might have a competitive edge as all the conventional bookmakers with remote operations will have to absorb the hit to avoid losing punters to betfair.

The bookmakers could be at a bigger disadvantage to betfair.

What an opportunity for Betfair!

lookingforthewildman 06 Dec 11 16:55 
Hopefully it wont be passed on by betfair,thats a sweet comment......what you think they will do,swallow it themselves......Jesus there is some doughnuts on this thing......

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They may have to - unless its through further premium charge or increased commissions - how else would they do it? Change their software to have different rules for country of origin? Not worth it.

It's not like petrol, or other products where its easy to pass on duty, excise, tax increases to the consumer.

Don't see what was "doughnut-ish", about db1974 suggesting they just swallow it. What would you do if you were them?

There could be legal issues also because if betfair are based in a different tax jurisdiction, it may be illegal to be double taxed.

The government will also have to tax all tax exiles in remote jurisdictions for equality and those boys are tough boys to get stuff off so hopefully they will challenge them regarding the government's legal authority to tax them.

I'm not a legal expert but the government have been going on about taxing remote betting for a while now and have failed to do it yet. I know it is a minimal amount but still there must be some reason why they have failed to do it so far.

Hopefully they will still be uunable to tax punters on the remote betting.

lookingforthewildman     06 Dec 11 16:55 
Hopefully it wont be passed on by betfair,thats a sweet comment......what you think they will do,swallow it themselves......Jesus there is some doughnuts on this thing......

Wanna bet that it will be absorbed?

The Betting (Amendment) Bill is now at an advanced stage of drafting with a final draft expected from the Attorney General’s Office early in the New Year.  The Bill will, inter alia, facilitate the extension of the betting duty of 1% to remote betting and the introduction of a betting intermediaries’ duty (Gross Profits Tax of 15%) to cover betting exchanges. Following publication of the Bill there is a legal requirement to notify the EU Commission 3 months in advance of enactment of the Bill.  It is intended that the new taxation regime will commence from the second quarter of 2012.

I've a quote from Betfair somewhere saying that they would be happy to pay when the legislation was brought in, wonder what they'll say now? Maybe the increased premium charge was a preemptive measure for paying this.

They're bound to absorb it.

The only issue might revolve around what constitutes turnover on an exchange.