Discussion: VAT increase
Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 3:44 pm
Unless you lived on Mars and only came to this planet today, you'll no doubt be aware of the the V.A.T. (Value added tax - yeah right!) increase today.
20% is the new and according to George Osborne - wonderful new tax rate. This is supposed to add £12 billion per year to the public purse and drag us back into positive figures.
I've spoken to a lot of people and they seem convinced that it's only £2.50 on a £100 shopping bill, so to them it seems like it's no big deal.
But it's a lot more than that.
Every item bought and sold has the increase, and that includes component parts.
A laptop for example might have hundreds of components, most of them either too small to see or too cheap to care about. But thats not the point, collectively it all adds up, and it might add up to another £50.00 on a £350 machine. Plus of course, fuel has gone up in price, +3p per litre of petrol and 4p on diesel, so transportation costs have risen too. Factor in the a lot of fruit and veg comes from Italy, Spain and Greece, that could add quite a bit to the weekly shop. A damn site more than £2.50
Not forgetting fertilizer, seeds, pest control, and various faming equipment all adds more to your food.
It's not just the end item price thats risen by 2.5%, it's everything that that item consits of, transport costs too.
Some analysts are predicting severe slowdown in spending leading to tens of thousands of job cuts.
20% is the new and according to George Osborne - wonderful new tax rate. This is supposed to add £12 billion per year to the public purse and drag us back into positive figures.
I've spoken to a lot of people and they seem convinced that it's only £2.50 on a £100 shopping bill, so to them it seems like it's no big deal.
But it's a lot more than that.
Every item bought and sold has the increase, and that includes component parts.
A laptop for example might have hundreds of components, most of them either too small to see or too cheap to care about. But thats not the point, collectively it all adds up, and it might add up to another £50.00 on a £350 machine. Plus of course, fuel has gone up in price, +3p per litre of petrol and 4p on diesel, so transportation costs have risen too. Factor in the a lot of fruit and veg comes from Italy, Spain and Greece, that could add quite a bit to the weekly shop. A damn site more than £2.50
Not forgetting fertilizer, seeds, pest control, and various faming equipment all adds more to your food.
It's not just the end item price thats risen by 2.5%, it's everything that that item consits of, transport costs too.
Some analysts are predicting severe slowdown in spending leading to tens of thousands of job cuts.