UK Ladbrokes Taxed £70 Million

The UK bookie company tried avoided paying taxes and artificially claimed losses company-wide. Tax service discovered tax bill and put the bill in the amount of £70 million.

The strategy was implemented by the company back in 2008 and saw the group and the Travel Document Services come to an agreement where "...an artificially manufactured fall in the value of shares in one company would be used to create a loss in the other company for tax purposes." The ruling saw that there were no real losses at Ladbrokes, and therefore the group shouldn't have been allowed to claim the tax exemption.

Speaking about the issue Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs Director General Jennie Granger said,

"Avoidance schemes like this just don't work and HMRC will always take firm action against them. The bookie gambled and lost when the odds of success could not have been lower."

Ladbrokes has not issued a comment on the matter and is reportedly considering all of its options as of press time.

The bookmakers, like real casino and online casino belong to the sphere of gambling, and severely taxed by the state. Many companies do not want to part with huge sums of money and try to illegal methods to save their money.