Calculate Remote Gaming Duty on freeplays
Find out which online gambling free games and bonuses you offer are liable to tax, and how to calculate your liability.
As a remote gaming provider, you may need to pay tax on freeplays you offer customers for accounting periods beginning after 31 July 2017.
Freeplays
You’ll need to include freeplays in your Remote Gaming Duty calculation. Freeplays are any offers to gamble at a reduced or zero cost used by your customers. They’ll include:
- free games
- introductory bonuses
- matched deposit
You’ll need to pay tax on a customer’s first use of any freeplays you offer.
If you require your customers to gamble a minimum value, or number of times, before they can withdraw winnings, you’ll only include the value of the initial stake in your tax calculation. You won’t need to include:
- required play-throughs from freeplays
- winnings that can’t be withdrawn
- winnings that can only be re-wagered
If the game is completely free for everyone to enter, you won’t have to pay Remote Gaming Duty on those stakes.
Where you offer a game that customers can only win a freeplay, you won’t be taxed when that freeplay is used by the customer but their initial stake will be taxed.
Calculate the tax on freeplays
The value of freeplays will count for Remote Gaming Duty as stakes on their first use. Add these freeplay stakes to your cash stakes.
You can deduct winnings from freeplays when they’re actually paid out or made available to your customers to withdraw. Add these winnings to other winnings you pay out.
However, you can’t deduct any winnings from:
- freeplays that have to be re-wagered
- freeplays that can’t be freely withdrawn by the customer
- games that were completely free for everyone to enter
To work out the tax that needs to be paid on winning freeplays in each accounting period:
- Add up the total value that’s been staked.
- Add up the total amount that can be withdrawn as winnings.
- Deduct the winnings from the value of stakes.
This is the amount that you need to pay tax on.
Pay the tax you owe
Find out how to pay the tax you owe for Remote Gaming Duty.