On Tuesday November 21, Skatteverket, the Swedish tax agency, raided players’ homes and issued written demands in an attempt to determine taxable poker winnings for the period 2008-2011.
Targeting the country’s full-time players, police and bailiffs raided a number of homes, seizing computers and phones and issuing demands for large tax payments. At the same time, a number of full-time players received by post requests for winnings/poker profits for the years 2008 to 2011.
The campaign is targeting poker winnings earned from outside the EU, naming brands including PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Bodog Poker. Under Swedish law, gambling winnings from companies in the EU are not taxable but winnings from companies operating outside of the union are taxed at 30 per cent.
Swedish authorities are singling out poker players by collecting screen names which were then cross-referenced with information harvested from data mining sites to build a picture of taxable winnings. The total number of players targeted has not been confirmed.
