Amusement Machine Licence Duty
HMRC have issued a new Revenue & Customs brief entitled ‘Amusement Machine Licence Duty – liability of quiz games played on machines’. The brief is intended to clarify HMRC’s policy in relation to quiz games played on machines and the liability of these games to the Amusement Machine Licence Duty (AMLD).
HMRC accepts that earlier advice given to businesses in the Amusement Machine Licence Duty Notice 454 which covered changes that took place in 2006 may have been unclear. The specific issue relates to the fact that certain businesses understood the notice to mean that any machine on which quiz games were played were exempt from AMLD.
HMRC do not agree with this reading of the notice and underline the fact that a machine on which a quiz game is played could also fit within the definition of a gaming machine and therefore be liable to AMLD. HMRC have confirmed that effective from the date of the Brief (9 March 2010) they will treat machines that are liable to AMLD as subject to the duty and collect any arrears from 9 March 2010.
HMRC have confirmed that they will not seek to collect any arrears of AMLD which legally may have been due on quiz games played on machines prior to this date. This reprieve will not apply where businesses provided other games of chance on a machine which also provided quiz games.