Richard Wild outlines the new machine games duty and explains how the industry should prepare for this new tax regime.
The taxation of gaming machines particularly their VAT treatment continues to be a hot topic for the leisure sector. The litigation involving the Rank Group plc continues with HMRC having already paid out hundreds of millions of pounds in claims for overpaid VAT. This figure will increase substantially if the Fleming claims submitted by many operators are ultimately repayable. Operators continue to submit claims even now on the basis that HMRC’s changes to the VAT law in December 2005 still haven’t levelled the playing field in the gambling sector. It is against this backdrop of litigation that the government is now trying...
