Joined: Mar '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 6714
Poker players in the United Kingdom will now be faced with a tax of up to half what they make. What a load of BS, so what is it now a skill game? change it as it suits. Also does this mean that I can off set winnings? such as I need a bigger screen to play on a better chair faster comp lots of software, heating etc etc?? Any one know of what this tax will be classed as, such as income tax or just plain old spoil your fun tax or we need a third house tax.
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 4827
In Portugal, governors are now running after offshores all over the world to see if they can discover who have accounts there and who brings money to the country without paying taxs. They are making a lot of noise about this, but in the end i think they will not a finger, because there are a lot of politicians with money there too! They are just running after themselves...
Joined: Mar '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 6714
LOL sounds about right Fakiry. Think you are right shokaku the first of many to come, we will reach stall mate ot some stage, there will be no benafit to working, infact i belive lots of ppl who do work would be best not to already. Funny how so much can go wrong in such a small space of time. As im self employed this will be a intresting one for me, as i belive ill be able to off set more tax from my work and put it in to poker, rather than the tax mans hand. Still waiting to hear how it will all be worked out, eg if I win a total of 1k a year, taxman wants 50% (500), now I think i can say it cost me internet connection+heating+electric+software+equiptment wich must be tax deductabll as now poker is a business i guess so after expensis from profit I owe FA. I dont know LOL
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 469
I think poker shoudnt have any taxes! But off course governments are always chasing our money. Poker is getting more famous day by day, and unfortunately for us it give us bad things too! Now they want to collect taxes because of our poker winnings. Very fews winnings in my case! lol
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1886
I thought being a poker player is just like any job. You need to pay tax on your earnings. It's like any self-employed business. So if you pay for internet connection, software which you use, these count as costs. Whatever's left you pay tax on. I don't know where you got 50% from. Anything to do with the highest tax band recently introduced? That's only for the highest earners and if you only earn a grand a year you shouldn't have to pay any tax at all. You should only pay tax if you earn at a professional level as far as I'm aware.
PS I completely agree with the new highest tax band because when you're that rich, you can afford it. You only need one luxury car, one massive house. The rest of us can't afford to buy our weekly food shop, can't afford the mortgage on our tiny houses and higher taxes mean in theory we pay less.
Joined: Jan '08
Location: Germany
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 482
Im really getting so mad about this. Im imagining those guys sitting there and thinking, where didnt we take money yet? But well, if they decide to call it a skillgame you can play everywhere for money cant you? Whatever, vouch doomdy burn the pigs
Joined: May '09
Location: Germany
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 2
Posted by awood88: I thought being a poker player is just like any job. You need to pay tax on your earnings. It's like any self-employed business. So if you pay for internet connection, software which you use, these count as costs. Whatever's left you pay tax on. I don't know where you got 50% from. Anything to do with the highest tax band recently introduced? That's only for the highest earners and if you only earn a grand a year you shouldn't have to pay any tax at all. You should only pay tax if you earn at a professional level as far as I'm aware.
PS I completely agree with the new highest tax band because when you're that rich, you can afford it. You only need one luxury car, one massive house. The rest of us can't afford to buy our weekly food shop, can't afford the mortgage on our tiny houses and higher taxes mean in theory we pay less.
This is right. Of course there is a lot of discussion whether and how taxes on Pokerwinnings might be preferable, but there is no reason for general refusal.
Joined: May '09
Location: Spain
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 53
It is only right if the payment of a tax can revert to you some social benefits such a social security or sanity, at last in spain like the taxes i pay to the public administration
Joined: Mar '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 6714
Awood88. Being a PRO player yes its just like a job, but for us who aint PRO its not, in the UK this tax is new unlike most places, its up to 50% it I guess will be bannded as normal. If you only earn 1k then you pay tax, its on all winnings (unless you earn in total less than 6k there abouts) This gets to me caus of all the is it or isit not a skill game, now they say it isnt, so its gambling same as horses, bandits, lotto..so you can see that soon they will move it on to the rest...tax on lotto wins etc. Congrats you won the lotto 10 mill jackpot, heres 5 mill. so lotto becomes a 50% tax basically str8 away.
Posted by B1gfoot: Poker players in the United Kingdom will now be faced with a tax of up to half what they make. What a load of BS, so what is it now a skill game? change it as it suits. Also does this mean that I can off set winnings? such as I need a bigger screen to play on a better chair faster comp lots of software, heating etc etc?? Any one know of what this tax will be classed as, such as income tax or just plain old spoil your fun tax or we need a third house tax.
2-3 more years and im gone.
Where has this story come from ? do you have a link ? Because I've heard absolutely nothing of the sort and a quick check on google found no results either
I dont think this is at all feasible because there is no taxation on any game of chance you enter and win money. How will the government enforce taxation on sites which are ran from overseas
Joined: Mar '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 6714
fcumred, it came from darling!, sorry I cant post the link, but just because you have no knowlage of the matter does not make it "tosh", if you googled then id suggest you look a little harder than you did. How can the govenment tax self employed ppl?, without following there every move, same as poker you declair it, extra/outher income. You may well find soon enough that that list will start to see a tax in some way.
Anyway, as I cant post the link Ill post two stories I found on page 1 of google!! :
Poker players in the United Kingdom will now be faced with a tax of up to half what they make. As may be expected, the news has caused an uproar in the poker industry, where some industry members are questioning whether or not a mistake was made in the numbers during the announcement. In favor of the tax figure of up to fifty percent being real is the fact that this is the current tax on table games like slots, roulette and blackjack. Industry members are concerned such a high tax could result in the closure of live poker rooms.
UK Poker Hit by the Budget There is a lot of confusion about the new poker taxation that has been brought in by Alastair Darling's new budget, which at first glance would appear to be a 50% tax on all poker revenue, from a previous 15%. Rank Group, the people behind the Grosvenor Chain of Casinos, has written to the government warning that such a big levy could force the game underground and many card rooms would be forced to close. Rank host poker in two thirds of their 33 card rooms and estimate 250,000 players play live in their casinos.
This is obviously a major concern and a lot of the UKpoker forums are worried this could be the end of live poker in the UK. After closer inspection, the new regulations are not quite as grave for the UKpoker industry, but it is still very bad news for it. The 50% tax is on any Gross Gaming Yield over £10 million, so anything below it will be taxed between 15 and 40%, with any card rooms under £1,929,000 only charged the original 15%. There will now also be no VAT charged on participation fees, which is a silver lining.
ad So on the face of it; this doesn't look quite so harsh for some standalone venues such as Dusk Till Dawn, although they still may be charged more than they were. It is, however, still pretty grim news for chains like Grosvenor whom one would expect to have a large Gross Gaming Yield; such is the scale of their operation. It could also be very bad news for the UK's flagship poker tour, the GUKPT and the added value promotions that make it such a success.
There is still a lot of doubt and confusion to as how this will be handled by card rooms across the UK. They may have to increase the amount of rake paid to play poker, or perhaps charge more for other things such as entrance into the venue or at the bar. There are still plenty of unregulated poker venues across the UK who might conveniently be able to avoid this levy altogether, which is may sway more unregulated poker clubs to open. Hopefully it won't come to that and the government will think twice or at least clarify exactly what is expected of the poker rooms.
