Friday, March 29, 2024

BTC: Amend Betting Act first

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The Barbados Turf Club (BTC) remains exempt from paying taxes from the money it makes on horse racing, and has no intention of paying under the current Betting and Gaming Act.

The BTC’s attorney-at-law, Ryan Moseley, is also challenging Government to properly include the BTC in any amendment in a way that would not only allow them to pay taxes as a sweepstakes business and not a lottery, but also prevent the death of the sport.

The position was revealed after Auditor General Leigh Trotman noted in his 2016 annual report that the BTC still does not pay 20 cents on every dollar from its gambling business on race days at the Garrison Savannah.

In that report, Trotman said the BTC owed Government for unpaid taxes since 2010, in spite of a reminder letter being sent in 2012.

Moseley told the Sunday Sun the Turf Club was not against paying taxes, but would have to be first recognised as a sweepstakes, and not as a lottery business, which the amendment to the Betting and Gaming Act does not specify.

“There is no question that the BTC is not required to pay taxes the way the law is structured at the moment. Besides, if they were to tax the BTC 20 cents on every dollar, horse racing in Barbados would not exist,” Moseley said.

He noted that a letter indicating this had been sent to the Ministry of Finance, and they were awaiting word on the matter.

“There is really nothing else we can do about this. But certain changes would have to be made if the Turf Club is to pay taxes from the money it earns from betting,” he said.

Moseley added that late Prime Minister David Thompson had eased a $20 million debt owed to Government by the BTC, and it was clear subsequent legislation was geared at protecting the entity.

He noted that in 2001, a budgetary proposal determined the BTC was to pay Government three cents on the dollar from its betting finances for pari-mutual and forecast tickets, under the Betting and Gaming Duties Act.

A subsequent statutory instrument in 2004 omitted the taxes chargeable on those tickets, which prompted attorneys to write the Ministry of Finance to not only point out the omission, but also advise what the statute should read, since the BTC did not want to profit from an obvious error in the law.

“Another statutory instrument was completed in 2008, that repeated the omission,” Moseley said. “I again wrote the ministry, informing them that under the circumstances, the Turf Club is not indebted to the Crown, from the period May, 2010.”

Moseley revealed that a letter in 2013 from acting Accountant General Dane Coppin brought attention to Section 2(A) of the 2008 Order, which addressed the rate of taxes payable for pari-mutual and forecasting tickets, which in the case of the Barbados Lottery is 13 cents on every dollar, and 20 cents on the dollar for “any other lottery”.

“It was said the BTC would fall into the latter category, since it was not the Barbados Lottery. The Barbados Turf Club is not a lottery, and the order clearly excludes sweepstakes. The BTC is a sweepstakes, a form of gambling where the stakes are divided between all the winners,” Moseley explained.

“While both lotteries and sweepstakes are forms of gambling, they are not synonymous. The BTC cannot fall into the category of any other lottery,” the lawyer added.

Calls and messages to Coppin for a comment on the department’s next move went unanswered. (BA)

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