Playtech Pays €28m Israel Tax Settlement

London-based developer, Playtech, has agreed to pay a €28 million tax settlement in Israel after a civil tax audit. The supplier will pay this sum of money in order to cover some of its activities between 2007 and 2018 that were carried out in this country.

The reason for this was that tax authorities made a series of transfer pricing adjustments. In other words, the authority had disagreed with the arm’s length price that Playtech used for foreign transactions.

A part of the settlement includes that Playtech doesn’t incur any fines or other penalties resulting from this audit.

The deadline for the payment is 30 days and the Playtech will record it as an exceptional item in the supplier’s fiscal report.

Misfortunate Events

Even though the supplier has agreed to this tax settlement, the company is not thrilled about it. Only recently have they found out…

…that Italy was going to increase the gambling tax, which directly affects the developer from the UK. However, it is not the only one affected by this rush decision.

The hike in gambling taxes will strike anyone who is providing online gambling services to the people of Italy as well as sports betting. Online casinos are taking most of the hits, but land-based casinos are not saved either because they too will have to pay higher taxes.

Earlier in the year, Playtech purchased the remaining of Snaitech, thus hoping to spread its reach in Europe. The transaction costed a whopping $986 million and after the acquisition, the buying company decided to keep the management team thanks to the impeccable financial results.

However, 2018 has not been the greatest year for the UK supplier and the bad streak seems to continue in 2019. At least in the first few days of this year when they had to agree to this tax settlement.

Business as Usual

Despite some difficulties, the brand has managed to stick to its business plan. One of the major deals for the company happened at the end of November and the beginning of December when they extended their collaboration with Fortuna…

…one of the biggest gambling names in Central and Eastern Europe. This agreement is significant for both brands, especially in markets such as Slovakia, Poland, Romania and Czech Republic.

Furthermore, we have seen some remarkable slot releases in 2018 one of which is Pumpkin Bonanza, a Halloween-themed software product that is scary and fun at the same time.

James Frendo, Casino Director at Playtech, said: “After the success of our Halloween Fortune slot and our first Halloween-themed Live room, we wanted to deliver an even more compelling seasonal offering for our operators this year. The Viking Studio team has done a fantastic job on Pumpkin Bonanza, with eye-catching graphics and an atmospheric soundtrack, and we’re confident it can make just as big an impact as Halloween Fortune.”

Source:

“Playtech agrees €28m Israel tax settlement”, totallygaming.com, January 2, 2019.