UK Bingo Tax Cut By 2%

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

15 December 2009

The UK government's pre-budget report by Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer, also included tax cuts: duty on land-based bingo clubs will reduce from 22% to 20% from April 2010.

Last year, VAT on bingo was exempted, but the duty was increased from 15% to 22%. Along with the smoking ban, this had contributed to a serious decline in business and numerous closures.

A spokesman for Mecca Bingo (Rank Group), Dan Waugh, was quoted by 'onlinebingoclub' as saying, "April’s changes had cost the operator of Mecca bingo clubs GBP9m a year. This claws back about GBP2.5m, but it doesn’t make up for what they did in April. It’s bizarre because it’s almost impossible to discern any logic. It would have been better if they’d just left us alone in April.”

Bingo operators had wanted to see bingo duty return to the 15% enjoyed by the rest of the UK gambling industry.

A comprehensive report in our Intelligence Report series examining the new possibilities that offshore e-commerce open up for business, and analysing the offshore jurisdictions that have led the way in offering professional e-commerce regimes for international business, with a particular focus on e-gaming, is available in the Lowtax Library at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/subs_reports.asp and a description of the report can be seen at http://www.lowtaxlibrary.com/asp/description_report6.asp

 

 






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