What % of betfair users are profitable?

[ShaunWhite]

Keep your chins up, PC is just the price of having a job that the HMRC thankfully haven't cottoned on to, yet.

It will never be taxed. For the simple reason HMRC will lose revenue. Remember for every winning trader, there's a losing trader. The loser will claim the losses, & the gains from the winner won't cover it.

Oh dear I thought that might have caused a bit of a sh!tstorm I've just spent a whole load of time recently struggling with one underfunded service after another (mum's waited 18 months already for a dad's coroner's report & death cert, that's upsetting when you're 85 and not sure if you'll ever see it) ...I log on, people who get everything for free are moaning...just sent me a bit over the edge.

ruthlessimon : I'll have to correct you ...when a business makes losses, the govt don't give you the money back, you might get a bit knocked off the next profitable tax return but they always end up on the sweet side of the deal. You're maybe not old enough to remember that we did acually pay tax on our stakes or winnings (you could choose which one it was) until 2001. I don't ever remember getting cashback on my losers. Lots of countries do tax it (25% in the US) so I wouldn't be quite so confident if I was you. (btw this is what the internet looked like in 2001 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1580478.stm )

LeTiss : When I saw you'd replied I braced myself for a b*llocking about being so 'right on'. I was glad to see you were so socially responsible and reading between your lines, I agree that this whole 'non-person' situation they put you in is ridiculous. Quick cheeky quiz question LeTiss...who was it that scrapped betting tax? "It is the greatest day for punters since betting shops opened on 1 May, 1961," said McCririck.

[ruthlessimon]

You're maybe not old enough to remember that we did acually pay tax on our stakes or winnings (you could choose which one it was) until 2001.

Fair point yes, maybe 'never' was slightly too strong, but I still think it's very unlikely. I do vaguely recall reading a similar article when I was getting into spread betting way back when. I think the advent & rise of the internet was a key factor in the policy change. I'm sure most bookies being based offshore meant that savvy punters could avoid the 9% levy. And bookies could avoid tax full stop. I imagine this would happen again if Hammond does any funny business - and we wouldn't see much change from what have today.

[tees]

"It's tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it's a nail."

[Frogmella]

Its better to tax the bookie's profits because that way you encourage more to bet and you get to tax indirectly the losers as well as the winners. Just like the lottery is an indirect tax on poor people.