Australian federal government to discuss nation-wide POC tax on online gambling

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s news that the New Zealand government is planning a point-of-consumption tax on online race wagering (see previous report) the Australian media reported Friday that similar discussions are being developed by the federal government in Australia.

Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison confirmed to The Australian newspaper Friday that state and territory officials have agreed to discuss possibilities with federal counterparts in a bid to introduce a uniform p.o.c. tax on online betting across the nation.

Morrison said that harmonising online gambling tax across the states and territories could counter the “tendency of some of these businesses to game the system by shifting their earnings into lower-tax jurisdictions.”

“We were able to agree, subject to state and territory governments’ conferring again with their cabinets – and with the reservation of the Northern Territory – to move forward to prepare a proposal for a nationally consistent approach to point of consumption tax on online gaming,” Morrison said.

“Now this is a very important issue both from a revenue perspective but frankly more important from a social perspective. And we all agreed that it was necessary to work on a nationally consistent approach. Already in South Australia there is legislation that’s dealing with this and so that provides a good starting place to look at models.

“But a nationally consistent approach … around harm minimisation is necessary. This is not about raising revenue for revenue’s sake.”