Reduction in UK VAT rate

[kev@frames]

I see Ireland's VAT rate has gone up by half a percent. That makes quite a difference between the republic and the north, 6.5 percent.
Has it got boring? Maybe, but "Business Matters" often are.

so back to the OP, it looks like most of us are in agreement that the reduction in VAT rates wont make much of a difference to our individual businesses.

Personally we found implimenting the new VAT no problem at all, a few minutes to alter the till, the POS, and the website VAT.

So what would make a difference, a positive difference? Its certainly not the VAT, so thats probably the end of this discussion. Perhaps we'll re-visit it when the rates go up again.

[Moglet]

The erstwhile 21% VAT rate is a curse. Most consumers buy from small businesses that use the XX.95 or XX.99 style of pricing, so for people selling products generally priced this way, the ½% increase in VAT is effectively a tax on most small retailers. (Gee tanks..... ). Spookily enough, it won't be an issue for the likes of food retail giants to pass the increase on to their customers, because "formula" pricing isn't their norm.

With regard to the pre/post-Euro differences in Ireland, in pre-Euro times things cost a helluva lot. Since the Euro, they cost a helluva lot - squared. Also, given that the currency difference between the IR£ and Yoyo at switchover time was about 78p to €1, it makes businesses such as ours trickier, because people even now are still thinking in Punt, making Euro prices 'sound' much more unattractive.

I hate the way the Revenue operate over here. They even come looking after you're dead (just one of the joys I had to deal with when my mother's will was going through probate: deeply upsetting on an emotional level).

They'll tax anything that moves over here (and even things that don't - see above). Example: You have to pay annual stamp duty on ATM and credit cards!!!!!

A €50 note disappears faster than a £20. And the vanilla coinage has all the signs of being designed by a committee who've never used anything but plastic. I'm not what one might call 'fond' of the Yoyo. Had I my time again, I would not chose to move back here.

With regard to the reduction in VAT rate you guys have over there, if one looks at the wider picture and considers just how many goods attracted the 17½% rate (nearly everything), the reduction will at least put a few quid into people's pockets that they didn't have before. It may enable some to spend some of it with you guys, or for those with very low incomes who are really struggling, it could put an extra loaf of bread on the table. Over here, they are introducing a flat 1% "Income Levy" (a screw by any other name....), which means that everyone will now have to pay some amount of income tax, including the people whose earnings heretofore left them outside the tax net: an appalling way to treat one's electors in a land where the cost of living is beyond ridiculously expensive to start with!!! And I thought the Blair administration were gits for introducing IR35....

However small, as Tesco keep reminding us, every little helps. That said, to quote a Private Eye cover gag from many moons ago, (featuring James Callaghan on a pig farm), "When you're knee-deep in sh!t, you need a good pair of wellies." To continue the metaphor, as an aid to weathering the country's current economic woes, I think the UK 2½% VAT decrease will be about as useful as a flip-flop.

Guess I'm just a great big, world-weary, cynical old Hector...

[Bill Henry]

Please excuse my ignorance, but other than the child’s toy that I never could master (I kept bopping myself on the noggin), what is a “Yoyo”?

[Moglet]

"Yoyo" = Paddy nickname for "Euro"

[prospero]

I kept bopping myself on the noggin

That explains a great deal.

[Not your average framer]

With regard to the reduction in VAT rate you guys have over there, if one looks at the wider picture and considers just how many goods attracted the 17½% rate (nearly everything), the reduction will at least put a few quid into people's pockets that they didn't have before. It may enable some to spend some of it with you guys, or for those with very low incomes who are really struggling, it could put an extra loaf of bread on the table.

I should think that the percentage of retailers who pass on any reduction to their customers is pretty small. They are not legally compelled to drop their prices and a good many will grab that extra 2.1% with both hands. When it comes down to it, the whole exercise is a pointless and utterly meaningless gimmick, which benefits nobody. Nice to see you back Aine.