Oh Ohh!!!! More VAT

CHANCELLOR Gordon Brown in his mini budget yesterday hit fixed odds betting terminals and both Sections 16 and 21 machines.
Brown made the decision to keep amusement machine licence duty, which the industry sees as preferable to other potential taxation dangers.
But the categorising of machines into the new Gambling Act format has followed for the purposes of Value Added Tax from midnight last night and for AMLD from March of 2006. For FOBTs the gross profit tax of 15 per cent is replaced by VAT at 17.5 per cent and from next March, FOBTs will face AMLD as well at £1,865 per machine per year at present rates.