Uk Gambling Tax 21
How we regulate the gambling industry. We regulate in a transparent, accountable, proportionate, and consistent way. Using a risk-based approach, we focus our resources on those issues and gambling businesses that potentially present the greatest risk to the licensing objectives. Pay Attention, America; UK Raises Gambling Taxes to 21 Percent Joss Wood Posted on Nov 13, 2018 10:28 PST The UK is raising its point-of-consumption (POC) gambling tax from 15 percent to 21 percent. The news came in the form of a recent adjustment to the annual UK Government budget. Online gambling in the UK: Remote betting has grown hugely in the UK. Online and mobile betting accounted for Gross Gaming Yield (GGY) of £710.19 million in 2011-12. Pursuant to the Finance Act 2014, as amended by the Finance Act 2019, online licence holders must pay a tax of 21% of their gross gaming yield in relation to accounting periods beginning on or after 1 April 2019, generated from UK customers, even if the operator is located outside the UK. Following from the Government's announcement that it was going to move gambling regulation to a point of consumption basis, the Chancellor announced—in his Budget Statement on 21 March 2012—that a point of consumption tax would be applied to online gambling, meaning that all operators offering online gambling products in the UK would be.
A government enforced, incoming raise on point of consumption tax (POCT) will hit UK gambling operators this October, forcing them to pay up a higher slice of their online casino revenues. The hike in tax comes after the UK Conservative Chancellor Philip Hammond announced his 2018 Autumn Budget in the House of Commons last October.
The Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) will rise from 15% to 21% on October 1, an increase wasn’t as steep as some operators had initially feared with some predictions forecasting as high as 25%. Such forecasts initially saw share prices of some of the major UK-listed gambling firms suffer sharp declines meaning the lower rate, while still the third online tax increase in the past four years, will come as much relief to many operators.
Lost Revenues
The raises in online gambling taxes come as a way of balancing out lost revenues after the much promised and often delayed reduction in betting limits on the fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBT) was finally introduced in UK betting shops this April, lowering bets from £100 to just £2. The stake cut was supposed to be taking effect in October but was brought forward to April after the government’s delay drew fierce criticisms and even cabinet resignations.
Such is the worth of FOBTs to a bookmaker’s high street revenue that the original delay saw the bookmakers rake in an extra £900 million windfall over that time period and sparked the former sports minister Tracey Crouch’s resignation in disgust. Overall, Gambling Commission statistics suggest that, at their peak, around £5 million a per day was being wagered on FOBT machines. Since the cut however, early indications suggest that such revenues have been reduced by around 40 per cent.
The government’s estimate of its new tax rate predicts an initial tax revenue of £130 million, rising to £255 million in 2020-21, before building to £290 million in the 2023-24 budget and making up over £1.22 billion in total over the first five years. In contrast, the FOBT stake cut is expected to cost the government £1.15 billion over the same period.
Curb On Advertising
Uk Gambling Tax 21 2019
Now that the government have turned their guns on the UK gambling industry, it is perhaps less surprising that the industry has also agreed to curbing their current advertising efforts. It has been agreed, industry wide, that gaming operators will withdraw from all pre-watershed live televised sports advertising from August and are also considering removing their football shirt sponsorships deals too.
The new enforcement will not apply to Horse Racing where sponsorships will continue to be allowed and, only this week, UK bookmakers Betfred penned a three-year deal running from 2019-2021 to be named the Official Bookmaker of Ascot racecourse and the Royal Ascot Festival.
Currently, marketing in sports from gambling firms account for 12% of all revenues so any move is likely to have a considerable negative impact on the sports sponsorship market. With the rules around sponsorships changing, as well as new higher tax rates, these are interesting times indeed for the online gambling industry in the United Kingdom.
Gambling Industry in the UK with the Explanation of the Tax to Government
Online gambling industry is one of the fast-rising sectors in the world with regular progress and new innovations. Even, the technology has developed the industry in an amazing way that helps the developers to develop creative gaming enthusiasts.
But whatever game you want to play, it is difficult to do anything in your life without paying to the government in the form of tax. The gambling industry is also not exceptional in such a case. If you win in any casino gambling game, you have to provide information about your gambling winnings to the government first. But here are some tax explanations of the Gambling industry in the UK that would definitely make you surprised.
Uk Gambling Tax 21 Rules
UK Gambling Tax System:
The tax system for UK gambling is very advantageous for the players. Not only does it would work in your favour but it is also very easy to understand and follow their rules and regulations.
Whenever you play casino games in the UK, you don’t need to pay any tax to the government, whatever it is. You don’t have to pay tax on your winning money and not even you have to pay tax on your initial stake. So, it simply means that you don’t have to inform your winnings to the taxman. So, for example, if you win Euro 4000 at an online casino, you can keep the entire amount with you. This is great differences in the policies of gambling winnings with other countries where you are not able to keep the whole amount of your winnings with you.
Uk Gambling Tax 21st
Who then Get Taxed in the UK for Gambling?
The gambling industry is worth a lot of money, thus, the UK government taxes the operators instead of the players. However, this was not happened in past. Previously, the player also used to pay tax to the government either in the form of tax on your stake or as a tax on your winnings.
In the year 2002, the UK government realized that the gambling industry of the UK would not be able to compete with the online gambling industry of the UK and other parts of the world. The government then decided to eliminate the tax from the players and keep the tax of the operator and we can see today that the decision was successful.
Gambling as a Profession in the UK:
So, becoming a gambling professional might be the only professions that is not actually taxed in the UK. If you are already gambling for a living or planning to take the gambling industry as your profession, then you are the lucky one as you don’t need to pay a single penny to the taxman on your gambling winnings. The reason for taking such decision by the government is very simple. According to the current tax system in the UK, if the government was allowed to tax you for doing any activity like gambling, then you would have the ability to claim your money back from the government for any losses.