Spread Betting Tax Free

The bookmaker organising the spread bet is taxable on their profits.

Spread betting tax free. Tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and may change in the future. However there is a loophole within the betting and gaming industry that profits from gambling are free of tax to the gambler and some consider financial spread betting as a shelter in which you can stick speculative investments to avoid capital gains tax. This form of betting is a major growth industry in the uk but carries much larger gains or losses due to higher levels of risk exposed. If spread betting is a secondary income then it is the most tax efficient way of trading if it becomes your main income.

Spread bets are free from capital gains tax while profits from cfds can be offset against losses for tax purposes. The key difference between spread betting and cfd trading is how they are taxed. We must emphasise that spread betting is only tax free under current uk tax law which may change and that ultimately your tax treatment will depend on your individual circumstances. Moreover with spread betting there is no income tax on dividends.

The section on betting and gambling contains the following further guidance. The general assumption is that financial spread betting is tax free here in the uk at least under the current tax laws. However this isn t always 100 the case. Spread betting vs cfds.

When compared to conventional share trading and cfd trading spread betting is the only trading product to offer tax free trading in the uk and ireland. I know that the spread betting companies say that it is a tax free product because it is classed as betting rather than trading but do you have any knowledge of the tax mans view on spread betting for a living as a sole source of income. I like the idea of not having to pay tax but. Spread betting s unique benefit is that it is exempt from both capital gains tax and stamp duty.

Spread betting is different from other forms of bets where the payout is based on the accuracy of the bet placed rather than a win or lose situation. What is a bet bim22016. I won t be using the leveraged side of spread betting it s just the tax free part that sounds good to me. To see how tax free trading works in detail let s look at two different.

Once your main income comes through spread betting all profits will be liable for income tax. Spread betting is tax free until it becomes your main income. However it is important to point out that spread betting may only be tax free if it is not your main source of income.