More delays for Ireland’s online gambling tax

Ireland’s repeatedly stalled online gambling tax has suffered another delay, taking it into the new year, according to a Reuters news agency report.

The country’s minister of finance, Michael Noonan, updated parliamentarians in a statement published Sunday, reporting that a standstill period the tax legislation is currently subject to has been extended into January after fellow EU member Malta raised concerns over the licensing laws for operators who are already licensed by another jurisdiction.

Minister Noonan said that as soon as the standstill period is completed, it is his intention to progress all remaining stages of the bill through parliament, and that he shared the frustration of parliamentary colleagues.

Ireland first announced plans to bring online operators into the tax net in 2011 by seeking to extend a one percent tax on bets placed in retail betting shops to wagers made online or over the telephone from customers based in Ireland.

Reuters reports that the delays have held up significant tax monies the Irish tax man could have been harvesting; noting that Paddy Power, which makes over three-quarters of its profits online, has said the tax would have cost it Euros 7 million, and it had informed investors in August that it expected the new tax to be implemented before the end of this year.

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