UK tax body HMRC investigating offshore egaming operators

BRITISH tax authority Her Majesty’s Revenues and Customs (HMRC) is researching tax issues related to operators that are licensed offshore but that carry out much of their business in the UK, but has denied that it has set up a specialist unit to investigate online gaming companies’ offshore tax status .

Speculation had increased in recent weeks that a specialist HMRC team was looking into the tax status of gambling companies licensed and based offshore to see if discrepancies could be uncovered and pursued by way of financial penalties.

A spokesperson for HMRC told EGRmagazine.com: “It is the core function of HMRC to ensure our customers are aware of their responsibilities and account and pay for what they owe, whether it be income tax, corporation tax, VAT or any other type of tax,” the spokesperson added.

“Although HMRC is currently looking at the tax issues involved with a view to identifying the risks to UK taxes resulting from the locations offshore, no specialist unit has been set up.”

HMRC also denied that the investigation was linked in any way to the freezing of the granting of White List status to any new applicants by the Department of culture, media and sport earlier this month.