 | Compers To Be Hit By New Competitions Tax |
UK compers face the prospect of having to pay tax on their winnings and on their competition entries if new government tax proposals are finalised in The House of Lord. Under the scheme competition promoters would be forced to inform tax offices of entry details and winner details so that the new ‘compers tax’ can be collected. This would have some benefits to compers as it would mean that all competitions would have to be run properly and genuine winners chosen too.
Government spokesperson Farina Lopstoil suggests that “each competition entered would cost a comper an additional 5p in tax”. So if you enter just 50 competitions a week you’ll be paying an additional £130 in tax a year. More prolific compers could be paying up to £1000 to the government just to enter competitions.
But that’s not all, as you’ll also be liable for tax on your winnings too: “all winnings will taxed at around 25% including tshirts, DVDs, CDs and big prizes like cars and cash”. So if you win an iPod for example, and the prize value was £100, you’re going to have to pay an extra £25 in tax.
This could have major implications for competitions in the UK and it will be interesting to see how promoters and compers react to this worrying situation.
Update: Well it’s past midday, so well done to everyone who spotted that the story was just a little bit of April 1st fun. Farina Lopstoil = It’s an April Fool! Lets’ hope though this blog doesn’t give the powers that be any idea though!
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on April 1, 2008 at 12:10 am ElvyFury wrote:
I wondered who would be first.
Congrats!
on April 1, 2008 at 12:12 am sharronannb wrote:
I nearly fell for that, well done Jason!!
on April 1, 2008 at 12:32 am kamzee wrote:
i fell for it but i’m sure it is only a matter of time before it happens.
on April 1, 2008 at 12:35 am jdnw27370 wrote:
mmmmmmmmmm whats the date ?????????
on April 1, 2008 at 12:39 am lioness19 wrote:
Far too obvious
on April 1, 2008 at 1:21 am Polarbear wrote:
Nope your gonna have to try harder than that lol maybe you should have linked to a rick roll instead
(although with this labour government its not totally beyond the realms of possibility- lets just hope GB doesn’t take up comping lol)
on April 1, 2008 at 1:23 am afro.ho wrote:
God I nearly got my Mum out of bed to tell her about that!
Hehe, don’t give anybody any ideas!
on April 1, 2008 at 8:14 am Palmer75 wrote:
Please don’t joke about it - the goverment might think it a good idea
Cathy
on April 1, 2008 at 8:19 am Jo Haigh wrote:
Good one! I did actually feel a momentary surge of panic :- D
on April 1, 2008 at 8:27 am alibobsy wrote:
Well you ot me to click on the link and whilst the page loaded up I suddenly remembered the date. Defo had me going for a min tho. Happy April fools day ev1 : )
on April 1, 2008 at 9:03 am Martin Henry wrote:
How disgusting,there are many people here and indead all over the country who are on low incomes and enjoy comping as it is fun,cheap to do,(unless you buy loads of stamps a week, oh yes,postage is due to rise as well,6th of april i belive!).Also what about the house bound compers?,the disabled amongst us, doing comps for those people may well be a big part of their lives.It will be yet another tax aimed at the poorest sections of society,i wonder how many high rollers,ie, richer, better off sections of the comunity comp to the degree that we do on this site alone?,not many of the sods i should imagine.If this law gets through it will seriously impead a large section of the comping community,and what will they do will the revenue raised?,waste it on doubious schemes, and then lie about the results as is the norm.What is going on in this land of ours nowdays?.As usual the rich get richer off the backs of the poor, sorry if i am going on a bit,but i am really not happy about the implications of all this, in fact it stinks.
Thank you Jason for bringing this to our attention.
Best regards,
The old hippy
on April 1, 2008 at 9:04 am robinw wrote:
If you’d said we’d all have to pay a tax before collecting a prize maybe I’d have fallen for it.
on April 1, 2008 at 9:07 am Martin Henry wrote:
Oh bloody hell,
Nice one Jase!, i forgot it was april fools day,looks like the old hippy should now be called the old dippy!.
All the best,
Martin
on April 1, 2008 at 9:56 am scrapaddict wrote:
I loved her name but after the U2U lockout I wasn’t falling for this one!!!
Happy 1st April!
on April 1, 2008 at 10:12 am jearund wrote:
Ha ha - I presume this is an April Fool! You made me read the article though!
on April 1, 2008 at 10:15 am galadrial wrote:
well i have to admit, you got me!
on April 1, 2008 at 10:31 am chelle33 wrote:
OMG you had me going then !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Im sooooooooo stupid lol
on April 1, 2008 at 10:33 am mandy101 wrote:
Nearly believed that lol
on April 1, 2008 at 10:46 am raymond53 wrote:
What a good idea to help the government out. Can we claim expenses too for stamps, postcards, internet and phone calls chasing up prizes not delivered and counselling for the disappointment of not winning?
on April 1, 2008 at 10:51 am widgespridge wrote:
For the first paragraph, you had me totally. Then it got to the spokespersons name…AHA! Nice one, Jason, very creative! xxx
on April 1, 2008 at 11:19 am SBrunette wrote:
Way too obvious
on April 1, 2008 at 12:14 pm MissMalone wrote:
nealy fell for it, Was trying to work out how they would tax items like t-shirts but hten remembered it was aprils fool
on April 1, 2008 at 12:30 pm helivalentin wrote:
Is that supposed to be a joke!?! I nearly had a heart attack… Naughty, naughty!!!
on April 1, 2008 at 12:34 pm jason wrote:
Well done for everyone who spotted it - however special thanks to Martin Henry for his outburst… priceless!!
And yes Farina Lopstoil is an anagram of It’s an April Fool!!
on April 1, 2008 at 1:00 pm starray wrote:
I fell for it!
on April 1, 2008 at 1:00 pm janeg88 wrote:
Good to see you’ve time for wind ups on the first of the month Jason!!
on April 1, 2008 at 1:31 pm stormy1051 wrote:
OMG!!!
I fell for that,Thanks
That’s the 2nd april fool i’ve fallen for already today
on April 1, 2008 at 1:51 pm valpownall wrote:
Ha ha! Very good! I thought ‘Oh yeah, it’s1st April’ but the more I read it the more plausible it seemed & I began to wonder if the powers-that-be had found yet another way of spoiling our fun!
on April 1, 2008 at 5:06 pm WINNINGAWAY wrote:
I fell for it and told my friends whilst drunk…..oh dear! Thanks 4 the laugh!!
on April 1, 2008 at 5:43 pm marycooper1959 wrote:
We may well laugh, but of course in some countries (Sweden, for example) there is a tax on competition prizes. Let’s hope it never happens here.
on April 1, 2008 at 6:28 pm julespage72 wrote:
my mum emailed part of this to me at work as I can’t access loquax there - I had a little outburst, thought about what date it was and then felt very stupid!!!!
good one Jason!
on April 1, 2008 at 7:11 pm MrsJustlucky wrote:
am still fuming over the Poll tax being stopped, this would of been another blow to already over paying Brits
on April 1, 2008 at 8:17 pm lillyinthesun wrote:
Huh! First you Rickroll us, then you pull a stunt like this.
Grrr! Certainly fooled me.
on April 2, 2008 at 6:34 am ch56 wrote:
good one Jason
on April 2, 2008 at 3:58 pm libra100 wrote:
I didn’t fall for the ‘flying penguins’ or the cream which enables massive weight loss, featured on LK Today, GMTV. But you really had me going there ………….
on April 4, 2008 at 4:38 pm Hobbit wrote:
Don’t laugh, prizes are taxed in the US. Remember Oprah giving the audience a car each……a couple of weeks later they each got a tax bill. You should bury this story (even though it was a brilliant one) least this Government catches on to it. Don’t feel bad Martin, I think everyone would agree with you……..comping is one of the last few pleasures in life these days