Ireland Is Thinking About Shifting Some Of Its Gambling Tax Burden
Irish gambling operators are being asked for input on a new tax regimen that would shift this particular tax burden from the operators of the industry to the bettors that fund it. In 2015, Ireland passed a betting amendment bill after a long delay that required Irish-bound online betting operators to obtain a local license for operation. These changes required these online gambling operators to pay a 1% turnover tax that was resulting from Irish gamblers while the actual bets themselves would pay 15% in their commissions.
The Irish department that is seeking new input has been noted in its goals of determining the impact of the tax change on the state revenues in respect to the bookmaking industry itself. To make sure that they arrive at an educated and beneficial conclusion, they have begun seeking the opinions of the stakeholders in a few specific ideas. They seek this help as they question whether the different approach to the betting exchanges, and the tax turnover model of the present is the most effective and appropriate model for the gambling industry within Ireland. They also want to establish what an “appropriate level of betting tax” would actually be. Opponents to the tax shift see it as a turnoff for bettors and expect it to drive players to licensed offshore betting sites that accept Irish players and that don’t charge the higher tax on betting.
The main shift in taxes that is being presented by the Irish Department of Finance is one that takes the taxes from the operators of these gambling venues and moving them to that of the actual bettor. Instead of the owners paying these 1% turnover taxes, their customers will. The opinions that have been asked for are due by June 19th and are suspected to favor the shift. Despite the fact that turnover taxes are usually pretty unpopular with gambling operators in Ireland.
Still, the usual opinion concerning someone else paying a tax that you will no longer be responsible for seems like a pretty obvious decision that most people will make. With that in mind, the turnover taxes that are in Ireland are still quite reasonable when compared to their European neighbors of Portugal and Poland. Those countries, apparently because of their high turnover taxes, struggle to attract much more than their land-based casinos who end up with what has been termed as “de facto online monopolies”. Whereas Ireland, on the other hand, has roughly 70 online gambling operators who have applied for the licenses in online betting.