Bingo Taxation

Bingo Taxation

A staggering number of people have written to me over the past twelve months with their concerns about this government’s ludicrous change to the way in which bingo is taxed.

Bingo plays an important part in our communities across the country, but sadly, around a third of bingo operators now feel that their future is under threat, and approximately a hundred of Britain’s 700 clubs had closed their doors since 2003. I want to outline here what my views are on this important issue, as well as explain what my Party have done on this issue in this document.

• After Alistair Darling announced tax changes in his 2009 budget over 600 letters and emails flooded into my office. This was the most popular issue which I have been contacted about since my successful campaign to save the Sutton Road Post Office in 2008.

• In my first letter to those who contacted me on this issue I outlined that that bingo operators had been embroiled in an ongoing legal dispute with the Government about whether or not they were liable for VAT.

• The Government claimed that by removing VAT but increasing bingo duty by over 45 per cent, it was being generous and was helping the fledging industry out.

• I did not believe that this was a case of generosity at all, and so I wrote a strongly worded letter to the Minister where I outlined that bingo operators were already struggling, and that there should be no doubt that such a tax rise would put greater pressure on them.

• My colleagues also told the Government this in the House of Commons and highlighted that the Government were clearly attempting a pre-emptive grab for revenue because it feared it would lose its court case on VAT.

• Conservatives continued to pressure the Government on this issue after the Government lost its case, with my colleague Philip Davies arguing in December that the new 22% duty rate was “the final nail in [the industry’s] coffin”.

• Sadly, despite these efforts, the Government have failed to bring forward proposals to cut duty fully, and bingo is still being taxed at a higher rate than comparable forms of gambling.

• I want to assure all my constituents who are concerned about this issue that a future Conservative government would hope to redress this imbalance over time, and as the public finances allowed.

Bingo Taxation

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