The federal government in Australia is contemplating changes to online sports betting point-of-consumption taxes (POCT). This past Friday, Federal Treasurer, Scott Morrison, conducted an official meeting to address this year’s federal budget.
In a statement provided by Morrison, the agreement reached during the meeting consisted of a plan “to move forward to prepare a proposal for a nationally consistent approach to [a] point of consumption tax on online gaming.”
With a more STATIC plan put in place, and negative accusations from outsiders, Morrison maintained that the recent plan of action is “not about raising revenue for revenue’s sake,” and more about lessening potentially dangerous outcomes to for both national sporting bodies and punters.
This is not the first time POCT have been imposed. In fact, South Australia served as the first to do so back in 2015. At the time, state treasurer, Tom Koutsantonis, commented that it is “important that online gambling operators pay taxes considering that they are generating profits based on betting activities of South Australians.”
Beginning on July 1st, the state will collect 15% POCT from wagering revenue, an expected $9.2 million per year. Despite progress being made, the Northern Territory continues to have reservations on the matter, most likely due to the fact that it represents the largest percentage of the country’s online betting licensures.
As of now, there is no official date as to when a new national POCT strategy will go into effect, but Morrison finds South Australia’s initial proposal to be “a good starting place to look at models.”
Source:
“Australia seeks national point of consumption online betting tax”, Stradbrooke Steven, calvinayre.com, March 24, 2017.