Isle of Man Issues Statement on UK’s Point of Consumption Tax
In response to the introduction of Point of Consumption tax on Monday 1st December 2014, please find the below statement from Peter Greenhill, head of e-gaming for the Isle of Man Department of Economic Development:
“The effect of POC on the Isle of Man online gaming sector will be minimal compared to other jurisdictions due to the fact that, despite each Isle of Man licence holder having a different operating strategy and very different player profiles geographically, the vast majority of players using Isle of Man operators reside outside the UK.
The legislation does not force UK facing licence holders to set up their companies in the UK nor does it force the processing of bets to take place on UK servers meaning that our licensees on the Isle of Man can retain their current structures with all of the benefits that they bring.
The legislation also requires offshore licence holders to either appoint a UK based Financial Representative who, at great expense, will take responsibility and personal liability to pay UK HMRC the duty owed, or may negotiate to pay 6 months duty in advance.
The positive news as far as the Isle of Man is concerned is that we have negotiated an arrangement with the UK tax authorities that UK facing operators licensed with us do not need to take on this vast expense. This represents a major saving over other jurisdictions.”
