US federal online gambling tax regime proposed in new legislation

online gamblingiGaming Business – A new federal online gambling tax regime has been proposed in the US in response to the launch and pending launch of internet gambling in various states throughout the country.

Put forward by Rep. Jim McDermott, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act of 2013 would create a 12% deposit tax that would be paid by licensed operators rather than players.

The federal government would collect 4% of this tax, with the remaining 8% being distributed to qualified states and tribes in the federal regime.

The tax payable to states and tribes would remain dependent upon the location of the customer in the respective state or tribal area at the time they made their deposit.

The new deposit tax regime would operate in a similar fashion to that of the Point of Consumption tax that is due to be implemented in the UK market.

Supporters of the new regime said that rather than using a Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) type of methodology as a basis for tax calculation in a multi-jurisdiction environment, a deposit tax approach would be better suited to an online gambling market.

iGaming Business