UK Government freezes free play tax on 2017 Finance Bill

The UK government will not introduce a tax on industry ‘free plays’ and customer bonus incentives, as Parliament shuts down and prepares for the 8 June General Election.

Last December, HMRC introduced new provisions accounting for duties on customer free plays issued by operators which would be attached to the 2017 Finance Bill.

Updating industry stakeholders, the government has chosen to remove the tax amendments from the bill which was due to come into effect from the new accounting period of 1 August.

Detailing its decision the government stated it did not believe that industry plans would receive sufficient scrutiny prior to parliament being dissolved on May 3 ahead of the General Election.

Last year HMRC detailed that provisions taxing industry free plays could generate an additional £45 million (€53.1 million/$56.9 million) in tax revenue during the 2017-18 financial year, with this figure to increase to £110 million by 2020-21.

Should the Conservative Party be re-elected on 8 June, the provisions could reappear within the government’s ‘revised finance act’.