Household Groceries - stock up now to beat VAT increase

JasonLVC

Primrose wrote: »

Just as a matter of interest - take the case of sultanas and other dried fruit. Are they free of VAT is you buy a packet from the cookery section shelves at supermarkets (i.e. for cake making) but liable to VAT if you buy them from Health Food shops like Holland & Barratt or Julian Graves?

It all comes down to the packaging when we talk about dried fruit such as sultanans and raisins.

If they are sold as a confectionery then they are standard rated (15%) but if they are sold as "suitable for home cooking" AND "Snacking" then they'll be zero rated so you'll find those little boxes of raisins you buy for kids are dearer than the big 1kg bag of raisins in the baking isle at Tesco.

Primrose

Jason - that's interesting. I shall have to stop buying my packets of dried fruit at health stores then, and stick to getting them from the supermarket home cooking shelves. That's the good thing about this site - there's always something new to learn.

dougs

Jane_Blackford wrote: »

It will be interesting to see if the shops that did not pass on the reduction will have the nerve to pass on the increase.

of course they will, they have no shame when it comes to fleecing the customer and fattening their profits :rolleyes:

PasturesNew

Even if my entire foodbill was 100% VATable and I round it up, we are talking about a bill of £1000, which is £1150 with 15% VAT and £1175 with 17.5% VAT. A DIFFERENCE OF £25 IN A YEAR.

If I buy everything now, then I potentially save a whopping £25/year, IF I can buy an entire year's worth of food the day before the rate goes up, AND keep it safe and usable, AND ... and this is the big one ... not over-eat simply because I have stocked up. And that's still IF ALL my food is VATable, but it's most likely to be 50% of it, making a saving of £12.50. I'd over eat by more than £1s worth per month just because I had the stuff already in.

I don't really see the savings being significant enough to bother.

And, what if prices of any of that food fell? It wouldn't take much of a change to have ended up spending more than it'd have cost me if I'd not bothered.

On the balance of averages, I think anybody considering buying to beat the VAT increase will find 3 months down the line they shot themselves in the foot.

chalkysoil

I saw these on the VAT site - standard rate vat

vitamin and mineral supplements of all kinds;
Rice cakes (but not unflavoured rice cakes intended for consumption with cheese or other toppings)
Potato crisps, potato sticks, potato puffs, and similar products
Carbonated drinks such as lemonade, cola and mixers such as tonic and soda
Fruit cordials and squashes
Bars consisting mainly of sesame seeds and sugar or other sweetening matter
Crystallised, sugared or chocolate covered ginger
Chocolates, bars of chocolate including those containing nuts, fruit, toffee, or any other ingredients, diabetic chocolate, liqueur chocolates and similar sweets
Sweets, pastilles, gums, lollipops, candy floss, sherbet, chewing gum, bubble gum, Turkish delight, marshmallow, fondants and similar confectionery
All wholly or partly coated biscuits including biscuits decorated in a pattern with chocolate or some similar product
Cereal, muesli and similar bars with honey or other added sweetening matter
roasted or salted nuts
alcohol


I haven't found these yet, but I suspect they may be vatable and due to increase...

Laundry detergent
fabric conditioner
Mr Muscle etc
Bleach etc
Washing up liquid
" " " " sponges
Shampoo
Conditioner
hair dye
Soap
Hand wash liquid
deoderant
Contact lens solution
Razors
Toilet Paper
Cosmetics
aerosol room sprays etc
candles
matches

Cat & Dog food
cat litter

Birthday cards

Light bulbs
batteries
deicer
pens
Baby bio
carrier bags

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

Jane_Blackford wrote: »

It will be interesting to see if the shops that did not pass on the reduction will have the nerve to pass on the increase.

Funnily enough we were talking about this yesterday.
I actually did'nt notice a reduction in things like chocolate bars ect when the vat decrease came in and with supermarkets doing "offers" it was hard to tell whether they had decreased anything.
I bet they'll put the two and a half per cent on in December and it'll be very hard to prove otherwise whether they should be doing so or is it just an unjustified price increase.

pelirocco

PasturesNew wrote: »

Even if my entire foodbill was 100% VATable and I round it up, we are talking about a bill of £1000, which is £1150 with 15% VAT and £1175 with 17.5% VAT. A DIFFERENCE OF £25 IN A YEAR.

If I buy everything now, then I potentially save a whopping £25/year, IF I can buy an entire year's worth of food the day before the rate goes up, AND keep it safe and usable, AND ... and this is the big one ... not over-eat simply because I have stocked up. And that's still IF ALL my food is VATable, but it's most likely to be 50% of it, making a saving of £12.50. I'd over eat by more than £1s worth per month just because I had the stuff already in.

I don't really see the savings being significant enough to bother.

And, what if prices of any of that food fell? It wouldn't take much of a change to have ended up spending more than it'd have cost me if I'd not bothered.

On the balance of averages, I think anybody considering buying to beat the VAT increase will find 3 months down the line they shot themselves in the foot.

Well said ,

A lot of posters on MSe didnt understand how the reduction worked , so cant wait to see the posts when it goes back up:rolleyes:

Primrose

Thanks to Chalkysoil for bringing home to us just how much we are being stealthily taxed on so many of the day-to-day items we use and consume - it's not just food but all those other hidden things we overlook - shoe & other domestic maintenance repairs, restaurant bills, gardening sundries, and all the other things we overlook. You name it - it's almost certainly got VAT slapped on it, so it isn't just about the food we buy, and if a VAT increase goes up to 20% as many people are forecasting, the extra cost over a year could be considerable - certainly enough to make it worth thinking about domestic purchases, maintenance or home improvements being brought forward before the end of the year. I'm certainly looking at some of my routine purchases throughout the year, right down to my potting compost, Tomorite, etc. and buying them early. For those living on a pension, such savings can represent a much bigger proportion of income than they would do for somebody earning a salary. In fact, they could represent the equivalent of saving one, two or even three weeks' State Pension pension, and that's surely not to be sniffed at in these hard times.

moonrakerz

Quite interesting/amusing:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/30/peter-preston-food-vat