Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
With all the new taxation as the time goes by, we are reading about new measures. One of these is the following : They are seeking to get from online gambling 200 million euros. I really wonder how they intend to do that and what the result will be, if they enforce even more measures, to the already crippled system after the last law.....
Joined: Jun '13
Location: Canada
Age: 80 (M)
Posts: 3700
Do you haave that many peoples playing poker in Greece with your present economy i suppose that only the rich can afford to play and is there enough of them to get 200 millions euros from gambling sites. I doubt that very much and depending of how the governement make their law there will probably be many sites not interested do do business.
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
Its not only poker. They are talking for gambling in general. Casino, sports betting etc. The biggest portion i believe comes from sports betting which is quite popular.
Who know how they intend to implement these measures to get that added amount. But it wouldnt surprise me if every site, along with sites already having a license and greek tax number, left once and for all.
Joined: Feb '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 5712
It is a difficult balance, between taxing the companies enough to keep them paying taxes locally and taxing them too much which forces them out of the country and therefore the country gets no tax. Then they focus on the public and take money from them, either at point of play, point of win, or through self declaration or taxing savings. It's not easy to do but is relatively easy in principle.
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 57 (M)
Posts: 1703
Man that´s some hardcore rullings Is that one of the proposals that the greek goverment have send to the eurogroup? If they strike to hard on gambling and shoke the market they can kill "the golden goose" the companies will get out or the players start to quit Hope for the best and keep us updated
Joined: Mar '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 45 (F)
Posts: 2261
Whenever a government see a product or hobby become successful and is used by all people they have to get in there and try and demand that they deserve a big chunk of the money. Before we know it a very popular game will be taxed so much that the costs go up,the little poker sites either go bust or get swallowed up by the massive ones.Does anyone know why online gambling has to be taxed any differently to an online shoe shop or online supermarket?
Joined: May '13
Location: Mauritius
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 2688
Yeah s**t is going to happens all day as people all around the world that is the government is seeing gambling as a taxable income and a way to get money not a small quantity but a lot of money and so on, anyway good luck guys have fun in the tax countries where there is no tax yet as all countries is moving on the other side of the coin, anyway peace out and have fun and good luck at the tables you have to adapt guys good luck!
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1886
I imagine the economy is pretty scary in Greece at the moment. No one wants to pay any more tax but they don't want their services cut either. I'm guessing that gambling is something they can get away with taxing. It would be more popular than taxing homegrown business, which is seen as stimulating the economy. The average naiive voter sees gambling as bad for the purse strings. Plus non poker players associate online poker with debt and addiction.
As for taxing poker in general, I think you can treat it as a tax on gambling or a tax on a profession. Most democracies put tax on what they consider to be overall negative (to discourage use) or luxuries (to help cover necessities) so they tax smoking, alcohol, fast food, games/toys, consuming fossil fuels, plastic bags, dumping rubbish, and of course gambling. Those industries pass on the cost to the consumers but they also have to pay tax themselves on their profits, just like any other business. The difference with poker, is that some of the consumers are professionals themselves, making money by gaming. I think that if you are a professional poker player you should pay income tax in your country but in that case gambling is no longer a luxury, you could even argue that you are no longer gambling, so you should have the right to claim back the invisible tax you pay when playing poker. Just as any business can claim back VAT (or so it is in the UK).
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
Since everything is getting taxed, i cant start complaining for this specifically. It is the way they are doing it, that is a bit of a fail. They havent put any thought to it. They just came up with a number and will try to get it. No one cares about the repercussions. If they had actually put some more time into it, they could have got more profit than the one they are expecting. But since when they are thinking properly
