Now I don't know about you, but I jave always enjoyed the odd game of bingo. It was about the only thing to look forward to when visiting Blackpool for a party conference!
The run-up to the Budget is always a busy time for industry lobbies and other 'special pleaders'. The Government has to weigh up competing claims for tax cuts but one which seems deserving this time around is bingo. It's a pretty harmless but popular hobby enjoyed by millions of people - the sort who Alistair Darling ought to be wooing, if he knew what was good for him.
So it strikes me as quite odd, considering all the concern of late about new casinos and internet gambling, that the Government would want to tax bingo so unfairly. Bingo is, in effect, taxed twice - through VAT and a profits tax. Harder forms of gambling are taxed nowhere near as much.
Bingo is enjoyed mainly by old ladies who see it as more of a social outing than anything else. More than 1.5 million people play bingo weekly and there are hundreds of clubs across the country. Interestingly, quite a few of these clubs are in Darling's cabinet colleagues' constituencies and also in a lot of Labour marginal seats. If bingo clubs start closing in these constituencies, don't bank on the sitting Labour MP hanging on to their seat at the next election. I understand there are many Hon. Labour members getting very windy about the issue.
Maybe the Tories ought to decide that the removal of VAT on bingo is one tax cutting policy they can get on and announce - and maybe (horror of horrors!) win some votes. Go on George. Be daring. You know you want to.
21 comments:
Isn't it the smoking ban that's buggering bingo?
They probably saw a bingo score card and thought it was a balance sheet. Not seeing any HMRC liabilities they concluded that they'd better add some extra taxes....
I can't help but think that an announcement on reversing the bingo tax (*GASP!*) would be nothing more than 'tinkering at the edges'?
VAT is a really repulsive tax, imho. I'm no expert (arf, arf) but indirect taxation goes against all my instincts, especially if it's regressive. The Labour/Conservative party has been using dishonest means to raise revenue for decades.
if the tenor of this blog over the last few days represents some kind of move to pitch it as a vacuous life style blog and away from it's mission as 'political intelligence' please pack up and go home now..
This ain't what we want - the Sunday Supplements are full enough of that drivel already. Give us some hard news - you are just the messenger, and the moment you start thinking that your opinions on the trivia of the day is more important than the goings in the political world is the day you turn into the Hefferlump...
Anonymous, this is not and never has been a news blog. It's meant to be opinionated comment.
And this is not trivia to 1.5 million people.
No Iain, we all actually do know that George doesn't want to be daring at all, he wants to be Darling.
Oh and it's the smoking ban that's killing off bingo, not VAT.
Ahem! once imposed VAT cannot be removed, but it can be reduced to its lowest level of 5%.
Anon 8:03
Not only are you anonymous, which more or less negates everything you say, but you are also obnoxious.
It is not, and has never been, a "vacuous lifestyle blog".
Certainly, Iain has his off days. When he was enamoured of Maidstone and the Weald, I could tell he was not only distracted, but a bit self -censoring. Iain is not Roger Scruton; Iain writes about what's on his mind and it does not necessarily reach this blog as an academic dissertation. He also writes about his personal ups and downs. He has never pretended to be anything he is not. I am not aware that he considers his opinions to be superior to those of others, but he does have opinions, this is his blog and it is, as I have said before, so far ahead of most of the others it cannot be properly classified.
I am not an Iain Dale fan club - he knows that and we have had our differences of opinion - but you, and those like you, should really tie a breeze block to your putrid little neck and go and jump in the sea, because frankly, neither he nor most of his readers, give a flying fart what you think.
Bingo should be taxed 'twice' i think. Look at their profits and then tell us they can't afford it, Iain.
Actually iain all the bingo clubs i've been into look like the devil's armpit, and the people who go to/live in them: the dregs of society. I reckon if you're against supercasinos in the UK you should be against these dives for lost souls.
It's not really taxed twice though. The VAT element is on participation fees and the gross profits tax catches operating profit. Note also that in 2003 the industry was all in favour of the move to gross profits tax to replace bingo duty.
I have some sympathy with the bingo clubs but tax wise they've done much better than the rest of us in the last few years!
Little old ladies???? Bingo halls are full of gay men these days!!
And good luck to them
So no more taxes, pleeeease
oh Iain - and there was one of the most important days in Australia's history and I think you missed it love.
I think there are far more important taxes to reduce than one on gambling. Income tax, for example, which penalises work. Or stamp duty, which is a seventeenth century survival which should be axed as quickly as possible on shares.
It's nice to think about cutting taxes, but to be honest Brown will leave the public finances in such a disastrous state after the next election that I'm not sure we'll be able to cut taxes responsibly at all.
I think the "nom-dom" tax situation is far more serious than Bingo.
wrinkled weasel stated
"flying fart"...discuss!
Anonymous 1101pm..Iain didn't miss the Australian 'Sorry' I guess he, like me and countless others, are tired of Labour Politicians apologising for yesterday!
What happened, happened.
It cannot be altered and a Sorry, an abject apology or a pardon for some soul who was 'done wrong' is simply ridiculous.
Nobody has, yet, apologised for Peterloo! for young lads climbing chimneys, for mill workers losing their lives,for the shocking living conditions we whites had to endure in the slums of London, Manchester,Birmingham, Glasgow etc etc. Have the Jarrow Marchers received their apology?
There is so much in the history books that was wrong. A sorry or an apology today cannot and will not right those wrongs.
I am afraid the aussie PM has been studying BLAIR.
Anonymous was right. As VAT is an EU tax, once levied it cannot be removed unless the Prime Minister of Bulgaria and 26 other heads of government allow it...
And you support Britain being in the EU, Iain?
It seems the Bingo Industry are now lobbying No.10!
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/SaveOurBingo
Dear Strapworld
I couldn't use the word I intended.
The Weasel wishes to apologise personally for the following historical misdemeanors:
* Sending children up chimneys
* The Act of Enclosure
* Peterloo
* The Clearances
* The Workhouse
* Putting homosexuals to hard labour (I had a long think about that one)
* Ricketts
* Bloody Sunday
* Hillsborough
* Robinson's Gollies
* BBC news and current affairs.
* Sticking special needs people in prisons and showing them as a public spectacle
In turn, the Weasel requests an apology from:
* The Romans, who despite providing roads, adequate sanitation and stability, were after all, imperialists and did engage in sadistic saturday night entertainment programmes and ate fluffy mice.
* The Irish, for not only consigning St Patrick into slavery, but for hijacking a true Brit as their patron saint.
(All other suggestions gratefully received)
In reparation I am prepared to accept, (from the Romans) an Alfa Romeo Spider and a voucher for a quattro formaggio (with extra olives) at Pizza Express.
(op at WW)
http://wrinkledweasels.blogspot.com/2007/03/apology.html
wrinkled weasel.
what about demanding an apology from the Italians for denying the Human Rights of Ancient Britons and, of course The Picts!
We should demand billions for the thousands of slaves they took from our Island as LionFodder!
Finally, You and I could start, with Iains assistance, the Bring Back the Groat Campaign (BBGC).As our forebears were not given a referendum seeking agreement to change the currency! We should right that wrong - an apology will not do!
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