Domestic bookmakers confident of not having to pay tax on online turnover

IRELAND’s leading domestic bookmakers are confident of not having to pay a tax on the turnover they make from their online operations, despite analysts suggesting it might become a replacement strategy for the Government’s scrapped retail betting tax plan.

While the Government didn’t make any budgetary mention of its earlier controversial plans for an amended tax on bookies’ turnover from retail operations, analysts – Davy Stockbrokers and Goodbody Stockbrokers, in particular – suggested yesterday a tax on online operations could prove a reality.

That suggestion was based on this week’s budget proposals’ inclusion of a funding cut to the horseracing sector as a whole.