Who is passing on the VAT Rate Cut? A "Name and Shame" Thread

vivatifosi

Agree with Timne, a brilliant post blue_monkey, thank you!

Edit: make that two brilliant posts - you managed to get another one in while I was posting...

soolin

Thank you for your post blue_monkey, I just wish the Chancellor understood as much about consumer buying habits as you, I'm sure we would not be in this mess. Since the 2.5 reduction in VAT I can't think of anyone at all I have spoken to, (except one silly woman who misunderstands it all) that is planning on any changes to their buying habits. A recession is a recession and I think this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

As for naming and shaming 'poundland' OP please get real and admit this is a wind up! Do you realise for instance that much of the poundland stock is VAT exempt anyway? So honestly what do you expect them to do..call themselves 'Poundland, except for the items that have VAT levied which will now be xxx'. At least it made me laugh :rotfl:

blue_monkey_2

Hi Viv and thanks. Long time no speak!! These stupid threads are making me so cross and the ignorance of some people just astounds me - no wonder the country is in the state that it is in right now!! Maybe showing that simple economics is missing from the curriculem!

blue_monkey_2

I've always known I could do a better job than him anyway, LOL. I think that we should get a party together from the MSE boards - we'd wipe the floor surely!! Once we had finished arguing about who sold the cheapest and best quality bacon of course.

brightonman123

what odds on the £1 (or 99p) shops buying out some of the woolles branches?

in town, thewy seem to be the ONLY busy places..

WestonDave

One other thing to factor in is the change in fuel tax - by reducing the VAT element on fuel and replacing it with fuel duty, it has effectively made fuel 2p per litre more expensive for hauliers. For us the price remains the same, but where hauliers could recover 17.5% VAT out of the total price, they can now only recover 15% and cannot recover the extra 2p per litre fuel duty.

Also you need to allow a certain amount of sensible leeway - take Argos for example - their catalogue contains all their prices and is due to be replaced at the end of December. By the time you factor in the cost of reprinting the whole thing and the fuel issue, there isn't going to be much left for them to pass on. It makes sense for them to simply be competitive and account for the relevant amount of VAT to HMCE - afterall in times when retailers are offering 25% off, quibbling about transparent cuts in VAT is very childish.

blue_monkey_2

Littlewoods has been empty in our town for about 3-5 years now, as has Lidls and another huge store. They have been empty a long time. Despite other shops coming and going no-one wants the floor space and they want the smaller rents and rates. Woolies are HUGE stores and the rents will be high so I am not sure that this will be the case.

Poundland could have taken any numnber of big shops but they make do with a middle size one and cram everything in. A Xmas shop has just opened in the old Littlewoods store here but clearly, that is just for Xmas and it will be gone. We have a good number of empty shops in Stevenage now, a sure sign of our times, each time I go down there another store is closing or has gone. This is why i think it is important we support our businesses through these times not run some silly name and shame campaign.

I do however think that the pound store is a bit over-rated and you can get cheaper and better quality elsewhere if you are prepared to shop around. It's all very well paying £1 for a toy car but when the wheels fall off after half an hour it seems gross waste of money to me and I'd rather pay £5 and have it in the toy box for 4 years (we have cars that are 4 years old depsite being chucked around) than buy some plastic cheap thing that lasts half an hour before it has to go in the bin. Where is the common sense in that? I know you can get some bargain in oundland but most of it is tat!! Maybe that is just me though. My kids get something every now and then rather than something each time we go to town. No wonder kids grow up with such little value on anything and wanting for stuff all the time - this will lead to kids buying things on credit as they want it now in the future.

As I said, these are going to be very hard times.

Am I waffling again. Sorry.

brightonman123

i reckon HMG should have made VAT down to 10 or even 5- aw heck, ZERO percent, for December only- we are all going to be taxed to hell later on,so a few hundred billion extra cant hurt that much more??

JimmyTheWig

billbennett wrote: »

O2 - Will be passing on VAT rate cuts from next week, and will issue refunds on request of the difference on "more expensive" line rental already paid in advance

How does this affect PAYG customers? If a 10p text currently costs 8.51p+VAT, with 15% VAT that will make it 9.79p - is that what they're going to charge us? Or give us a bonus when we top up with £10? Or will £10 top-up cost us £9.79 in the shop?

blue_monkey_2

Err... clearly you'll still buy £10 worth of calls but you'll get more talk time if it costs less per minute or more texts if you pay per text. You need to check out the respective websites as things like Trade sales, BT Line rental, Mobile Bills, etc... will become cheaper as they have the VAT price analysed on the invoices. If you are invoiced with the VAT rate noted then you'll get the reduced rate, if you don't then you'll probably still pay the same price.

Don't spend it all at once though. I am struggling to think of what I'll be spending the 24p saving from my BT line rental on..... That will not even buy a Mars Bar and they are the cheapest chocolate bars to buy!!