The implementation of the Point of Consumption Tax, which has severely affected all providers of gambling products and services on the territory of the United Kingdom, made the Isle of Man officials consider offering Double Duty Relief to all the 56 gambling operators.
The changes have been put into force immediately and now, companies are allowed to request a relief, equal to the monetary maximum equivalent to the amount of money that would have been received by the Isle of Man Treasury for the same activity.
According to the latest reports, gambling activities form 13% of the economy of the Isle of Man.
Peter Greenhill commented on the changes and said that local authorities are well-aware of the fact that the newly implemented changes in the UK gaming laws are regarded as a burden by most operators so they have made the decision of applying the best possible approach.
The Isle of Man Treasury announced that they have reached an agreement with HM Revenue and Customs and according to it, companies, based in the Isle of Man are not obliged to comply with the Gambling Act 2014 when it comes to appointing a UK representative for duty affairs, which helps the substantial costs be avoided.
Greenhill also added that the decision was made with the aim of reassuring all 56 operators that have a valid license, issued by the Isle of Man authorities, will not have any troubles, concerning the operations they have to run on the territory of the Isle of Man.
Everyone affected by the changes, implemented a month ago, admits that the the Isle of Man officials are trying to make the situation a bit more bearable. At the end of the day, it is a well-known fact that operators are trying to avoid paying the tax but they want to be available on the UK gambling market at the same time.
In order to achieve that, they usually move their headquarters to Malta or Gibraltar so the Isle of Man officials defined these actions as useless and decided to provide the operators with the tax relief.
Those who keep a close eye on the matters, know that the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association tried to prevent the changes from taking place but unfortunately, their claims were not approved by the UK High Court.
The CEO of Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association said that according to the judge who was in charge of taking the final decision, GBGA proposal has pinpointed all important “points of principle and practical issues for the enforcement of revenue collection”.
