Poll results: GBGA right to challenge 'unfair' tax
Less than a third of respondents to this week's poll feel UK PoC tax is fair and a challenge is unwarranted
The Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association (GBGA) is right to mount a challenge of the looming 15% UK Point of Consumption tax, according to two-fifths of respondents to this week’s tightly contested eGR poll.
Some 40% of participants said the tax, which is due to come into effect on 1 December, would result in a worse deal for consumers and damage the industry, with a period of consolidation in the sector widely expected to come as a result.
The GBGA is pushing for a judicial review of the tax and is confident the courts will accept its case, despite having been recently defeated in its High Court challenge to the corresponding PoC licensing regime.
And 31% of respondents feel a similar outcome is likely and that, while it may have a case and solid arguments, the British government is unlikely to be defeated in its attempt to tax the gross gaming revenues of offshore companies profiting from UK residing customers.
However, 29% of readers believed the tax to be fair and the challenge could even cause further damage to an industry reputation which has come under fire from both the media and politicians of late – although mainly due to high street shops and FOBT machines.
The decision to challenge the tax, which is expected to raise around £300m in tax receipts per annum, represents something of a U-turn for the GBGA after the industry body had previously indicated it was unlikely to do so.
However, the GBGA said “the story has changed” with the contents of the recent licensing judgment said to have offered the industry body “greater hope on tax”.
According to the GBGA, a challenge of the tax now represents the best way to protect consumers with increased taxation likely to lead to costs passed down to the consumer which may prompt customers to seek out better value through unregulated and untaxed operators.
The UK Treasury, which is set to apply the tax, said it would “robustly defend” the GBGA’s challenge and that it was confident the reforms were “lawful, proportionate and non-discriminatory”, as contested by the GBGA.