POCT consultation deadline closes today
Majority of UK-facing operators said to have submitted lengthy responses - GBGA submits submitted extensive document questioning government's motives in imposing point of consumption tax.
The deadline for submissions to the UK Treasury’s consultation on the policy design of proposals to implement new regulatory and taxation measures on the UK online gambling industry closes today with the majority of UK-facing operators said to have submitted lengthy responses.
A lawyer representing the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association (GBGA), that has spent more than half a million pounds hiring legal advice to fight the UK government’s plans to impose a 15% point of consumption tax on operators at the end of 2014, told eGaming Review it had submitted its written representations in response to the consultation and that it would make a further statement in due course.
A source close to the matter told eGR the group is to hold a number of meetings on the matter tomorrow.
The group has gathered together 23 of Gibraltar’s largest licensees and, according to the source, has submitted an extensive document questioning the government’s motives in imposing a point of consumption tax, the legal grounds on which this is based and the limits to which they are prepared to go to accept the revised levy.
The Treasury was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.
The 23 GBGA members are known to have each paid an average of £22,000 to hire two experienced QCs to prepare a legal case that will aim to either stall or preferably abolish the coalition’s bid to tax UK-licensed operators at the point of consumption instead of the current point of supply.
David Vaughan CBE, of the Brick Court Chambers, and Kevin De Haan, QC with the Francis Taylor Building are the lawyers in charge of building a case for the Gibraltar body.