The Race Betting and Lottery Act (Rennwett- und Lotteriegesetz) is a German tax law (betting tax).

The law came into force in July 2012. Since the introduction, all sports bets (offline and online) have been subject to a 5% taxation of the stake wagered, plus any winnings.

However, the bookmakers approach this betting tax very differently, which is why it is difficult to give conclusive advice. Nonetheless, before you place a Matched Bet, ensure to check how much you will pay and correct the stakes accordingly.

Does the betting tax make Matched Betting unprofitable in Germany?

No, not at all. BUT it is important to incorporate the tax in the right way, to make sure your calculations are accurate.

Of course your profit would have been bigger if there were no tax, but there is still plenty of money to be earned.

Here are just some of the possibilities of how you may encounter the betting tax:

Tax deducted from the stake

Tax deducted from the winnings

Tax deducted only if your bet wins

The bookie pays your tax

You have to pay the tax yourself

No tax is charged on accas

No tax on live bets

No tax deducted on Fridays

The list is endless.

Here are some real examples from a number of bookmakers:

Betstars: fee (Gebühr)

Tipico: No tax

888Sports: Only if bet wins

William Hill: 5% tax

Confused?

In this guide we will give you some advice on how tax is dealt with by different bookmakers.

The bad news: not much you can do about the tax.

However, if the bookmaker deducts 5%, and if you end up having to go through the full wagering requirement, you can minimise your losses by finding good matches, and/or underlaying.

The good news: there are probably more bookmakers in Germany than you think that don’t deduct the betting tax (or don’t deduct it in certain circumstances).

They either pay the tax themselves, or they will specifically point out to you that it is your responsibility to declare the tax yourself.

Before we find out who those friendly bookmakers are, let’s look at exactly how all the other ones go about deducting those 5%.

How is the tax deducted?

Basically, there are just two common variations (plus one more unusual one): either the tax is deducted off any amount that you win, i.e. the overall return (including the stake), or the 5% are deducted off your stake, when you place the bet.

In terms of the calculations, there is precisely zero difference between these variations, as you will see below:

Here is a list of bookmakers that deduct the tax from the stake:

Bet-at-Home

Betive

Betsafe

Betsson

Runbet

Xtip

A more unusual variety of including the bet tax:

Some bookmakers (e.g. Wettstar) put the tax on top of your stake.

So if you were placing a €100 bet, they would take €105 from your betting account.

This seems annoying at first glance, because you then pay the tax even if your bet loses.

But, at least in the case of Wettstar, no further tax is deducted if your bet wins.

Does this make any difference to the calculations and your overall profit?

In fact, it hardly makes any difference to your overall profit, but you do need to make adjustments to what you enter into the calculator.

The Matched Betting Calculator doesn’t accommodate this way of calculating the tax, but you can easily do this manually.

All you need to do is change the odds when you put them into the calculator by dividing them by 1,05. For example, odds of 5 would be 4,76.

Then change your stake to €105 and set the back commission to 0%.

And don’t forget.

For all the other bookmakers that charge the tax by either deducting it from your stake or by taxing your overall return, just enter the 5% into the Oddsmatcher calculator.

If you have to use the standalone calculator, either if the bookmaker is not included in the Oddsmatcher, or if you are placing a live bet, you will be relieved to know that if you use the DoppelWetten Matched Betting calculator, you can just enter the 5% like in the Oddsmatcher, and it will do the calculations correctly (unlike standard matched betting calculators available elsewhere that only deduct the 5% from the potential winnings).

And of course this applies to all our other calculators as well.

Oddsmatcher:

Matched Betting Calculator:

After all these tedious details, here at last is the list of tax-free bookmakers, and these are the ones we have identified so far.

0% Tax Bookmakers in Germany

12Bet

138

18Bet

1xBet

22bet

Bet 52

Betcity

Betfair Sportsbook

Betrally

Bigbetworld

Energybet

Guts

Intertops

LS Bet

Melbet

Noxwin

Pinnacle

Roy Richie

Tipico

Tonybet

Vbet

Vulkanbet

Please note: the above list is not exhaustive.

Do you know of any more tax-free bookmakers? Then please let us know in the forum.

Special offer: no tax

As mentioned above, some bookmakers offer to pay the tax for you in certain circumstances, to entice you to place more bets with them.

Usually, this applies to accumulator bets. Here is a small selection, and again, if you know of any good offers of a similar nature, be sure to let us know in the Forum.

Bet 3000: no tax on live bets and 4-fold accas

Betsson: tax-free accas, minimum 2 selections, minimum odds of 1,30 per selection and 3,00 overall odds

Betstars: tax refund on accas, minimum 3 selections, minimum odds of 1,30 per selection, until 19 May 2019

Expekt: tax paid for accas with a minimum of 3 selections and minimum odds of 1,40 per selection

Mr Green: no tax on Fridays on any sports event. Unlimited number of bets with unlimited stakes. Note: the tax is still deducted, but winnings are increased by 5%, i.e. the offer works like an odds boost.

Sportingbet: tax refunded on accas with 3 or more selections at minimum odds of 1,40 per selection

You may also wish to consult our separate List of German Bookmakers with more details on which of them charge the tax and what special offers there are.

If you have any questions or comments about this post, please go to the Forum.