Tax the Lotto

088 Mobile phone

Just an idea i have that would raise many millions of euro, A 50 cents tax/levy on all national lottery tickets and scratch cards.

Diarmuid

088 Mobile phone wrote: »

Just an idea i have that would raise many millions of euro, A 50cent tax/levy on all national lottery tickets and scratch cards.

Why not make it 100%? You could make 2x many millions. :rolleyes:

p

That's a very simple idea, and like most simple ideas, it's not a good one.

The lotto has to be feasible financially to run, a 50% hit would make that very difficult. The lotto fund that gives to charity is a tax of a sort already and i'm sure it's taxed in other ways too.

GetWithIt

Does not compute.

The Lotto is run by a state owned company. The proportion of income that goes to charity is determined by that company.

I'm not sure if the national lottery has ever returned a dividend to revenue but that would be the means of getting income from the lotto.

Either that or sell the company / license, ala camelot in the uk.

MagicMarker

I know, let's tax tax.

088 Mobile phone

A 50 cent tax would not put anybody off buying the lotto (its already a fools tax) It would just mean a €2 card would now cost €2.50 and a €4 quick pick would now cost €4.50

View

088 Mobile phone wrote: »

Just an idea i have that would raise many millions of euro, A 50cent tax/levy on all national lottery tickets and scratch cards.

One of the de Medici's is reputed to have said when introducing a lottery in Florence that it was a tax on idiocy.

Lotteries generate lots of money for governments, hence the reason why they allow them.

FreeAnd..

MagicMarker wrote: »

I know, let's tax tax.

you know that they do that in the US? I once had to write software to handle it - good old tax on tax...done at a charge level on invoices...

Squall19

088 Mobile phone wrote: »

A 50 cent tax would not put anybody off buying the lotto (its already a fools tax) It would just mean a €2 card would now cost €2.50 and a €4 quick pick would now cost €4.50

Fools tax:rolleyes:

I play it twice a week.

I look at it like throwing coins in fountain. Nice if the wish comes true.

I'm just scraping by.

Saving one hundred euro a week will never make you rich.

You dream about winning big, keeps me going every week.

If they taxed it I would still play it.

Permabear

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Sleepy

Taxing the winnings as Income tax might be worth investigating...

flutered

why not run a save our country lotto.

Liam Byrne

MagicMarker wrote: »

I know, let's tax tax.

You mean like combining VAT & Excise ?

Already done and creaming in a fortune extra based on the ever-increasing price of oil.

Imagine - compared to 3 years ago the "let's throw our money away" gang are getting 50% extra for every litre of fuel or home heating oil you by - all by doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

And yet you still have to fork out for it at the pumps / in the winter, despite all the other things those lying incompetents have done to you in the meantime.

No chance of taxing those on €100,000 or €500,000 or more, but sure we'll contemplate hitting someone deluded enough to try and escape poverty via a lotto win!

RichardAnd

Permabear wrote: »

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If you invest it wisely and have a sprinkling of luck, then yes, you will be rich. Let's not forget that a great many people made investments not so long ago and are now left with a very different type of equity to deal with.

Only invest if you know what you're doing.

BeeDI

MagicMarker wrote: »

I know, let's tax tax.

As Jimmy Crowley sang,

And they taxed the pound of butter and the taxed the ha'penny bun,
And still with all their taxin' they can't bate the bloody Huns, (Merkel)
So right away, so right away, so right away,
So right away Salonika, right away me soldier boy.

They taxed the Colosseum and they taxed St. Mary's Hall.
Why don't they tax the Bobbies with their backs again' the wall
So right away, so right away, so right away, so right away,
So right away Salonika, right away me soldier boy.

antoobrien

The lotto is income tax on those outside the paye net (it's a bit of fun for the rest).:rolleyes:

The current system supplies €200m+ in revenue to the government.

Now if the lotto is auctioned off, then presumably VAT would be payable on each line - I don't think this is the case at the moment.

Permabear

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JJJJNR

p wrote: »

That's a very simple idea, and like most simple ideas, it's not a good one.

Oh yeah like the Ipod.

Delancey

Best example of tax on tax look no further than your gas bill : units used plus carbon tax = x amount .
Take x amount and add VAT = amount owed.

We pay VAT on carbon tax .

I think we should shoot the greens myself.

antoobrien

Delancey wrote: »

Best example of tax on tax look no further than your gas bill : units used plus carbon tax = x amount .
Take x amount and add VAT = amount owed.

We pay VAT on carbon tax .

I think we should shoot the greens myself.

Don't we also pay vat on excise duty (petrol, diesel, heating oil, drink, fags etc)?

corkthai

create a paye lotto, include everyones paye number and take 10 quid a week through our tax. Have a draw every week with a Guaranteed winner. remove that persons paye number from the draw and maybe the 10euro tax. could generate a lot of money too.
so avg 1.6million paye = 16million per week. give away 1 million. which equals 700odd million a year.
then we just need to make sure that its done in a legitimate way.

Cork boy 55

A better idea is to reduce the jackpot and cap it at 500,000 to 1,000,000

I think that people will still play because
(1) the odds of new game will be better although still so high
that any rational logical person* would never play in theory.
(2) more people will hear of friends and neighbours winning and think they have a chance

Smaller jackpots Spread the wealth around more
why give someone 5 million? , half of them just disappear to spain with it!

*which I am but I still play even though I know that I can never win
its inpossible.

ILikeBananas

Permabear wrote: »

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ILikeBananas

Permabear wrote: »

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How much would they have made in the previous 25 year period? I'm not trying to be smart. I'm just saying that there's definitely an element of luck as to the performance of the equity markets during your period.

(Also, where can I find a 5% deposit account these days when the ECB rate is so much lower?)

Helix

088 Mobile phone wrote: »

A 50 cent tax would not put anybody off buying the lotto (its already a fools tax) It would just mean a €2 card would now cost €2.50 and a €4 quick pick would now cost €4.50

no it wouldnt, it would just decrease the value of the jackpot and other prizes. a €2 card would still be €2, but 50c of that would never make it to the lottery, and the same for a €4 card

there'd be absolutely no need to increase ticket cost