Brexit Gaming taxes. In Gibraltar, there are 34 online gambling houses, the most important in the world, which generate about 30,000 million euros a year and maintain about 3,000 direct jobs, many of them occupied by the Gibraltarian countryside. They are in administrative positions, web design and maintenance or answering customer service calls in call centers.
After the British Gambling Act was passed in 2005, almost all gambling and online gambling companies decided to leave Britain to get rid of new tax obligations. All of them were arriving in Gibraltar attracted by their tax regime (VAT exemption for marketing, very low corporation tax and exempt from payment of gambling taxes in the United Kingdom), but now all that is in danger and the fear that they are going away by Where they came grow every day.
The intention - announced this week - of the Prime Minister, Theresa May, to put the UK out of the single market will force her to look for a "new and ambitious free trade agreement" with the bloc once it completely abandons it. The point is that the European online gaming regulation specifies that those who wish to apply for a license should be EU companies belonging to the European Union or the European Economic Area. ( READ SO ABB of Commons meeting considered as “missed opportunity”)
It is clear that the taxation and liquidity of the online gaming sector will be affected. Many specialists understand that it is possible for many operators to move their business to another more favorable territory or some European Union country to ensure its stability, but do not forget that the largest volume of customers is in the UK, so Bookmakers cannot risk losing them either. At least 55% of the remote betting services provided to customers in the UK are provided by companies based in Gibraltar (READ SO United Kingdom into solving social gambling problems)
The first negative consequence of Brexit is coming even before it is consumed, according to the specialized website InfoPlay, which says its analysts understand that "the brain drain is more than remarkable and palmaria." "The workers of these online gambling companies are being picked up by others settled in Malta, Ireland and Cyprus not to mention the impact it will have on the economy of the Gibraltar area where Spanish workers charge there in pounds," the website explains.
"The parallel consequence of Brexit is clear: the flight of talent to other sectors or other operators based elsewhere," says expert Ivan Garcia. In addition, in other jobs "support" of these companies, will lower the level because the power of attraction that before had to charge with pounds now no longer exists when devaluing and also with a drift that will go further, "he predicts Iván García. "The online game had managed to attract skilled and experienced professionals. Now with uncertainty about the future and with the devaluation of the pound, these professionals can be relocated, although many could be changed as the experience in gaming is something appreciated in many online businesses. Other major gurus in the sector may be pushed to undertake and create their own projects, "he concludes.
The third problem facing bookmakers located in Gibraltar appeared after the British Government in December 2014 established a rate of 15% for British gambling and betting activities under the Finance Act In places like Gibraltar. (READ SO, BITCOINS RECEIVE TAXES)
Szpunar, whose opinion is not binding, but which generally marks the line of the Court's subsequent judgment, considers that the Rock and the United Kingdom should be treated as a single entity for the purposes of freedom to provide services, since they are " Only Member State "and, therefore, the tax regime does not constitute" a restriction "to that free service. "The new tax regime introduces national taxes on gambling that apply to service providers without making distinctions," the attorney general said in a statement.
If the final sentence of the CJEU occurs, as it seems, in this sense, a new obstacle will be added to the online gambling business from Gibraltar, as the traders will have to continue paying the 15% tax on what they get from their customers British, which - it is said - are majority.
