直布罗陀博彩及博彩协会抗击英国博彩税的计划(2)

　　译文：

　　GIBRALTAR PLANS TO FIGHT AGAINST NEW UK GAMBLING TAX PROPOSAL

　　The Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association announced that it's prepared to launch litigation proceedings to prevent the United Kingdom from implementing an online gambling taxation regime based on the point of consumption.

　　The GBGA whose members include major European and UK online gambling operators explained that it will challenge the United Kingdom's plan to implement a gaming taxation regime based on the point of consumption. The organization already managed to raise GBP 500,000 that will be used to launch legal proceeding against the UK.

　　The organization said that: "In the event that the Government determines to proceed with the proposed legislation and fiscal reforms, the GBGA will regrettably have little alternative but to institute judicial review proceedings to challenge these measures."

　　The Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association believes that the UK's proposal to implement an online gambling tax based on the point of consumption breaches European Union regulations because it would offer an unfair advantage to gambling companies physically located in the UK.

　　The GBGA explained that a tax system based on the point of consumption can be considered state aid offered to domestic companies, something that's against EU laws. More than this, implementing such a law would have a "profound negative impact on the economy of Gibraltar" because it would force many operators to relocate to the UK instead.

　　The GBGA's statement is a reaction to a UK law proposal that intends to implement a point of consumption based online gambling taxation system in the country. This is because at this moment the UK misses out substantial online gambling tax revenues due to the fact that gaming companies not physically located in the UK don't have to pay taxes.

　　A tax system based on the point of consumption would force offshore online gambling companies operating in the UK to pay taxes in the country. This would affect a large number of operators because due to the UK's extremely high online gambling taxes many genuine UK online gambling ventures decided to relocate to other jurisdictions such as Gibraltar.

　　These companies argue that implementing a point of consumption based taxation system is discriminatory towards online gambling ventures, since such a taxation system will not applied on other types of ventures. For example, German internet-based video game retailers aren't required to pay taxes in the UK even though they sell their products to UK clients as well.