Irish government considers climbdown on betting taxes

The Irish government is to consider creating a threshold on betting duty that would see operators only paying the current 2% tax on turnover of €2.5m or more.

According to the Irish Times, the measure, which is aimed at supporting the smaller players in the Irish sports betting market, would apply to both online and retail operators.

It follows extensive lobbying by the Irish Bookmakers Association, which had previously claimed that a 2% turnover tax would force the closure of 300 betting shops, together with the loss of 3,000 jobs.

Earlier this year, the Irish government said it would conduct a full review of the tax rise to establish if the claims were correct and highlight any changes which needed to be made.

According to the latest government estimates, introducing the €2.5m threshold would cut the turnover tax to 1% for any operator with a turnover of €5m a year, reducing the tax collected by the state by €3.4m in 2020 alone.

Following the IBA’s claims, Irish Independent Michael Healy-Rae proposed amending the tax rate from a 2% turnover tax to a revised rate of 10% on gross revenues for retail operators and 20% for online operators.

However, these proposals were dismissed following a meeting with European Union regulators who believed doubling taxes for online gambling operators while maintaining current levels for retail bookmakers would breach current EU state-aid rules.

Under these rules, governments are banned from supporting businesses in any way which is likely to distort normal commercial competition.