General Betting Duty, Pool Betting Duty and Remote Gaming Duty: appoint a representative in the UK
When and how to appoint a representative in the UK and HMRC approval.
Overview
If you’re a business based outside the UK and EU who has to pay General Betting Duty (GBD), Pool Betting Duty (PBD) or Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) and you’re not in a group, you’ll need to appoint a representative in the UK.
You do not need to appoint a representative if you’re based in:
- the EU
- the UK
- Norway, the Faroes, Iceland, New Zealand or South Africa
- in a jurisdiction which has an agreement with the UK to enforce gambling tax debts on behalf of the UK — such agreements are in place with the following:
- Gibraltar
- the Isle of Man
- the states of Guernsey including Alderney — if you are based in Jersey, you will still need to appoint a representative
If you need to appoint a representative, you’ll be asked to nominate one during the online registration process. However, you may be able to start the approval process before starting your registration.
It’s a criminal offence if you do not provide security or appoint a representative when you’re required to do so. This could also lead to HMRC revoking your Remote Operating Licence.
Your options for a representative
You have two options:
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option 1 — you can appoint a fiscal representative in the UK to be jointly and severally liable for the relevant duty
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option 2 — you can appoint an administrative representative in the UK to interact with HMRC (but who does not have joint and several liability), HMRC will also need the business to provide a security and approve your representatives, whether they are fiscal or administrative
Approval of your representative
HMRC will only consider approving representatives who are bodies incorporated in the UK with at least 3 years of UK trading history, we take into account:
- any relevant, unspent criminal convictions of the directors of the nominated representative
- the UK tax compliance of the nominated representative
- the liquidity of the nominated representative — in the case of fiscal representatives you should expect HMRC to ask for a similar level of guarantee of payment as would be to provide a security
HMRC will contact your nominated representative and ask them to complete a ‘Gambling Tax — Representative Details’ form (GTRA1) . We will also ask your nominated representative for their current year financial statement.
If your nominated representative is approved we will issue you with a formal requirement to appoint them. This appointment must take place within 30 days of your registration being confirmed.
You and your representative must send a signed declaration to HMRC confirming that the appointment has been made.
Contact HMRC about your representative
You can only contact HMRC with queries about representatives by email: gambling.taxes@hmrc.gov.uk.
Your email should give the:
- name of the business
- relevant tax (GBD, PBD or RGD)
- name of a contact within the business and a telephone number for that contact
HMRC will contact you by telephone and will send any formal communications by post. For data protection reasons, we are limited in what we can receive/send by email.
If you have any other queries please phone the Excise enquiry helpline.
Reviews by HMRC
HMRC may review their approval of your appointed representative. For example, to consider either:
- to continue to approve your representative
- to look at whether the security provided needs to change
Last updated 29 September 2023 + show all updates
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Updated the list of countries you can be based in where you do not need to appoint a representative. Updated the email address for contacting HMRC about your representative.
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First published.