Saying NO to Tax!

Read about the online poker industry’s latest hero, Sargon Rüya, who took on the Swedish Tax Agency and beat them in a landmark court-case to keep his poker winnings, here.

A new milestone has been reached for the online poker industry with the outcome of a recent court-case held in Sweden. Swedish online poker player, Sargon Rüya, won the landmark case when he was granted the right not to pay taxes on a share of his online poker winnings.

Online poker has always been an issue for tax agencies around the world, yet this time the Swedish Tax Agency ‘Skatteverket’ did not come out on top. Länsrätten, the country administrative court in Östergoötland, reached the decision that the 650,000 Kronor won by Rüya from a poker site based in the Isle of Man would not have to be taxed.

According to the local Östgöta Correspondenten newspaper, the decision was made based on the current taxing scheme of the European Union, which views online gambling games such as poker as exempt from being taxed. Since the site was run by a Cyprus-based company, Rüya’s winnings were ruled out as tax free. Winnings he had claimed from another site not belonging to the European Union, but Monaco, were rules as liable for taxing.

Skatteverket argued that Rüya pay taxes on his Isle of Man poker winnings due to the fact that only several EU taxing rules apply to the island, and that Rüya had to pay tax on them unless he could provide sufficient evidence that his winnings were received from within the European Union. Since the site was Cyprus-based, the court ruled in favour of Rüya.

Yet more than simply ruling them out, the court also completely discounted the Tax Agency’s logic. The court made clear that for a citizen to prove where a foreign company bases its operations is too far out of reach, and that the burden of finding out this information should lie within the Tax Agency’s hands, who have the resources to do so.

As for Rüya, the authorities’ handling of the case was less than impressive. He told local newspapers that his efforts to take on the Swedish taxing giant caused him to feel like “a lab rat” in their attempt to tax online poker. He further believes that Swedish authorities should reconsider poker as a game of skill as opposed to chance, yet this is most unlikely due to the gaming monopoly currently held over Sweden.