Using bet brokers in Austria

[Jogador]

Hi all,

I'm trying to figure out what the status is for residents of Austria and usage of bet brokers (like sportmarket.com).
Is usage allowed? Are winnings taxed? Any insights, possibly from locals welcome. Thanks.

[Optional]

We need Lonnie for this one.

[Jogador]

Upon researching, from 2022 onwards there appears to be a 2% tax implemented on each stake placed.
Question is whether unlicensed/offshore books/brokers are allowed to be used by players.

[jjgold]

Australian residents have very few deposit and withdrawal actions with Sportsmarket

Some type of regs

[Alfie White]

jj, you didn't pay much attention in elementary, have you?

[craftbrewer]

According to statistics, 100-150 persons every year buy wrong airplane tickets and land in Austria instead of Australia. jj is probably one of them

[Optional]

According to statistics, 100-150 persons every year buy wrong airplane tickets and land in Austria instead of Australia. jj is probably one of them

There is a Sydney airport in Nova Scotia that people have flown to more than once expecting to land in Australia

[Jogador]

so much about Wiener Blut

[Optional]

Wish we knew!

Poster Lonnie55 probably has the best reliable info you need around here. Hopefully he re-appears and answers your thread eventually.

You could try PMing him too.

[lonnie55]

We had a discussion about that topic about 2 years ago:

https://www.sportsbookreview.com/forum/sportsbooks-industry/3525660-best-countries-live-sports-betting-p5.html#post29408298

https://www.sportsbookreview.com/forum/sportsbooks-industry/3583483-asian-books-friendly-tax-jurisdiction-p2.html#post29195671

User eath1 claimed sports betting would not be taxable in Austria and was relying on two sources:

Source: 2019 Austrian tax book. https://www.bmf.gv.at/dam/jcr:2d2ebe...019_PDF-UA.pdf

Ctrl+F Gambling and you will find this: Only those incomes that are listed by the Income Tax Act under any of the types of income are therefore taxable. Gambling and lottery wins, for example, are not taxable; nor are the childcare benefits or the nursing care allowances

Therefore it is in theory not taxable in Austria.

Also, I sent an email to Austrian's tax department and I was told sports betting winnings were not taxed at all.

My two cents:

- Sports betting is not considered gambling but a game of skill in Austria. The PDF file user @eath1 quoted does not say a single word about sports betting.

- Since Austria has similar laws as Germany, it most likely depends on the single case. To quote myself from an earlier post:

I listened to a podcast a while ago: A German lawyer, an Austrian lawyer, both experts for gambling issues, and two poker players had a talk about whether or not earnings from poker are taxable. The Austrian lawyer wondered why all the German poker pros moved to Austria as Austria has almost the same gambling/tax laws like Germany and Germany taxes professional poker players. Obviously it's a hoax that Austria would not tax poker pros. It's just not prosecuted.

https://youtu.be/Xj_W3kKMEso

So poker is not sports betting but according to every German lawyer I asked so far, it depends on the single case if sports betting is considered tax-relevant or not. Maybe it's the same in Austria.

On the contrary, user eath1 said that he was told by an Austrian authority that sports betting is not taxable at all: https://www.sportsbookreview.com/for...l#post29195671
I could not verify this statement to date. Maybe it depends on the federal state you live in, I don't know.

To answer your other question, using a betting broker in Austria should not be an issue at all. I would worry more about the tax issue.

[Jogador]

Thanks Lonnie, I actually recall the linked threads.

I wonder whether the situation has changed given the apparent mentioned implementation of the 2% stake tax.

Because if using a bet broker in Austria is still ok, that means the user of bet brokers in Austria has to file and pay the stake tax himself (since the broker won't do it for him as the licensed bookmakers do). Question is whether Austrian taxman is ok with leaving that declaration up to the player.

[infotimbo]

I wonder whether the situation has changed given the apparent mentioned implementation of the 2% stake tax.

Because if using a bet broker in Austria is still ok, that means the user of bet brokers in Austria has to file and pay the stake tax himself (since the broker won't do it for him as the licensed bookmakers do). Question is whether Austrian taxman is ok with leaving that declaration up to the player.

you're probably referring to the new "Wettgebührenabrechnung" there, which, even as native German speaker, is quite hard to grasp, tbh:

https://www.usp.gv.at/steuern-finanzen/weitere-steuern-und-abgaben/wettgebuehrenabrechnung.html

So I'm not 100% sure either, but yeah, if I get this right, either the agent (as intermediary) or the bookmaker does need to pay 2% tax on all betting amounts placed from within Austria.

This is probably also the reason why Pinnacle closed all accounts of Austrian customers recently.

[lonnie55]

So I'm not 100% sure either, but yeah, if I get this right, either the agent (as intermediary) or the bookmaker does need to pay 2% tax on all betting amounts placed from within Austria.

I think so, too. The form (https://formulare.bmf.gv.at/service/...9999/Geb6a.pdf ) says

"Gebührenschuldnerin/Gebührenschuldner sind:

• der Veranstalter (Buchmacher, Totalisateur)
• der Vermittler, der Wetteinsätze annimmt und weiterleitet sowie auf andere Art und Weise am Zustandekommen der Wette mitwirkt"

It's simply nicht zumutbar (not reasonable) that a player would have to record all that data, given the sheer amount of details the authority asks for (Ticketnummer (fortlaufende Zahlenkombination), Datum des Wettabschlusses (dieses kann um die Uhrzeit ergänzt sein), Wettereignis (Mannschaften, Spieler etc.), Datum des Wettereignisses, Bei Wetten auf mehrere Spiele ist jedes Einzelspiel anzuführen, Wetteinsatz, Im Falle eines Stornos: Grund und Datum).

The same applies for Germany. Regarding the 5% Wettsteuer, the Steuerschuldner is always the sportsbook, never the player.

[Jogador]

If the Wettgebührenabrechnung/tax truly is only on the bookmaker/broker side and the state is not hindering access (ISP blacklisting) and/or punishing usage of unlicensed bookmakers/brokers for players, we might have a winner.

Next thing would be, when you declare say a 100k winnings from a sportsbetting, do they care if its from a broker and do they want of piece of it? Need to send them an email about it.

Can someone from Austria, Germany, confirm if brokers like sportmarket/betinasia are accessible from a non vpned computer?

[lonnie55]

Next thing would be, when you declare say a 100k winnings from a sportsbetting, do they care if its from a broker and do they want of piece of it? Need to send them an email about it.

Why would you even declare it?

Can someone from Austria, Germany, confirm if brokers like sportmarket/betinasia are accessible from a non vpned computer?

Regarding Germany, a VPN is not required for brokers although some recommend to use one, e.g. AC

[Jogador]

Why would you even declare it?



Regarding Germany, a VPN is not required for brokers although some recommend to use one, e.g. AC

In order to be able to use without hassle (investing, real estate etc). Unless you go crypto only, it will eventually show up in some system (even if just later down the line). And you can only go on so many vacations on cash.