The announced VAT cut doesn’t seem to have been well thought-out. Is a 2.5% price reduction (if it is all passed on) going to induce shoppers to spend more when much larger price cuts by retailers have failed to? Especially when many necessities have zero-VAT rates anyway and duty is being increases on Petrol/Diesel, alcohol and cigarettes, the things that many low-income families spend a larger proportion of their income on. Also is the VAT paid on Gas / Electricity being cut?
The VAT rate cut will effectively add £12.5 billion to government borrowing which is already reaching alarming proportions.
I also noticed this from the BBC website:
New initiative to fill 500,000 job vacancies with 20 major employers by speeding up recruitment and improving access to training.
Are there really half-a-million unfilled vacancies with just twenty major employers? Surely spending £12.5 billion (or much less) on training would fill every single one of these vacancies and cut unemployment by 25% in the process!
By: bazv - 25th November 2008 at 22:04
:D:D:D LMAO baz!
You might be interested to read the discussion in the Commercial Aviation section to see how Darling plans to increase Air Passenger Duty (APD)…again!:(:mad:
Cheers C9… I would love to but really can’t face any more tax cr@p 😡
regards baz
By: cloud_9 - 25th November 2008 at 16:01
…nothing is what it seems with Grabbing Gordon and his Gay Puppet.
:D:D:D LMAO baz!
You might be interested to read the discussion in the Commercial Aviation section to see how Darling plans to increase Air Passenger Duty (APD)…again!:(:mad:
By: bazv - 25th November 2008 at 15:26
Unfortunately any saving on VAT will be more than clawed back by many other tax rises to come !!We still have to pay for baling out our greedy financial gamblers (er… i mean financial system) nothing is what it seems with Grabbing Gordon and his Gay Puppet.
cheers baz
By: Paul F - 25th November 2008 at 13:37
Well, I’m not complaining, we were planning to pick up our new car from the dealer on Saturday, but the salesman just called, and advised us to wait till Monday, thereby saving ourselves a chunk of cash due to the reduced VAT that comes into effect on Monday 😀
I guess it makes no difference to them, so long as they get the sale – and they’re happy to help us save a few of our hard-earned readies. What a fine bunch of Gents 🙂
However, as we had already decided to buy the car, we are merely delaying to take advantage of the VAT rate cut… but otherwise will 2.5% off VAT really trigger a rush to spend, spend, spend….I think not.
Even on “big ticket” items like cars the saving is not really going to swing most people’s decision in favour of a purchase in such uncertain times.
And of course, we’ll all have to foot the “tax giveaway” bill in the long run….:(
Paul F
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November 25, 2008 at 10:50 am