VAT Drop

[AndyP & Lenore]

Question for you all.

With this drop in the rate of VAT and retailers being asked by government to reduce their prices commensurately....

WTF is Poundland gonna do?

A.

[illegalhunter]

Hm Rev and customs havr told my company , any goods and services supplied after the 18th nov will be charged at the lower rate

[Craig]

yeah.... they will be in REAL trouble..


I think the drop will have next to no effect in getting people to spend money. It just doesn't make that much of a difference...

[Fester]

Question for you all.

With this drop in the rate of VAT and retailers being asked by government to reduce their prices commensurately....

WTF is Poundland gonna do?

A.

Obviously it will force the return of the 99p Store

[Burple]

Question for you all.

With this drop in the rate of VAT and retailers being asked by government to reduce their prices commensurately....

WTF is Poundland gonna do?

A.

Lol.. 97.5p-land just doesn't have the same ring to it

[C.Noble]

I cant see any sense in this cut in VAT.

In all honesty, if you baulked at the idea of buying, say a new TV, last week because you felt you didnt have, or thought it wise to hold on to your £200... are you really gonna go out and buy that TV this week because it has now dropped to £195??? You would have to be considering a pretty large purchase before it seams tempting, and as anyone in the car sales industry will tell you... these large purchases just aint happening!

So I dont see it increasing our spending much.

As for helping retailers, I dont know alot about this industry, but I used to stay with a girl who worked for a small mail order company, and it was her job to source products, price them, then get brochures designed, priced, printed and distrubuted. She would start work on the Xmas brochure in August!!

As I understand the law, it is illegal to sell products in this country without showing a price as "with VAT included", so as far as I can see, the XMAS brochures (which they have probably ordered 50,000 or so) will now be totally useless!! Which I assume will either mean they break the law and send them out anyway, or they re-print, which they probably wont have time for.

I am quite sure there are thousands of businesses, large and small, all over the country that will have similar problems... hardly "helping retailers"!!!

[Sheilz]

Think the cut will cost more than it saves businesses or Josephine Public. A holiday from NIC for small businesses and employees would have been more effective in giving an incentive to keep people in work and of course Josephine Public would also see the difference in their spending power. On the other hand the government could just close the immoral loophole that allows large very profitable businesses from paying their employees from offshore accounts which allows them to avoid paying any NIC at all. I know of one north east business - and that's only one - that avoids paying millions in NIC yet their employees have to pay their's.

[Gismo]

A complete and utter waste of time, funny how it's a European Union directive that the minimum VAT price is 15 per cent and we aint even in the European Union
As mentioned, who is gonna buy something this week cause it's VAT is down by 2.5 per cent
As an aside, don't Argos send out millions of brochures, imagine how much it's gonna cost them to reprint with the new VAT rate

[illegalhunter]

A complete and utter waste of time, funny how it's a European Union directive that the minimum VAT price is 15 per cent and we aint even in the European Union
As mentioned, who is gonna buy something this week cause it's VAT is down by 2.5 per cent
As an aside, don't Argos send out millions of brochures, imagine how much it's gonna cost them to reprint with the new VAT rate

We are in the union , not the euro. Which is the first step to one world currency

[AndyP & Lenore]

As an aside, don't Argos send out millions of brochures, imagine how much it's gonna cost them to reprint with the new VAT rate

No guarantee they will. As a retail business charging a VAT inclusive price, they are not legally obliged to pass on the VAT reduction. They are legally obliged to only pay the 15% to HMRC after the 1st, but what they charge their customers is a matter for them as a private enterprise. So if they chose not to reduce their prices, there's bugger all anyone can do about it.

My initial question was, in all honesty, meant as a joke, as I realise their is no way they are gonna re-brand for 13 months to 97.78p-land. However, it's sparked a good debate on the subject. I would heartily agree with everyone, the whole thing is a waste of time and an extremely costly exercise for the majority of retail businesses.

A.