2.5% What does that really mean?
So, as of Monday 1st December VAT in Britain will fall 2.5% to 15% from 17.5%. But what does that actually mean we, the Great British public, are going to be saving?
Not much, to be honest.
Going from a retailer’s point of view (that’s me, by the way) the things that we won’t save money on are:
- Alcohol
- Bread
- Tampons, condoms, nappies etc (you’re only charged 5% on these to begin with)
- Fresh meat
- Pet food
- Newspapers / Magazines
- Jaffa cakes!!
Basically, anything deemed as being ‘essential’ we don’t get taxed on to begin with so we won’t save money on those. Anything that’s deemed as a luxury, like biscuits, we’ll now save 2.5% on. So a packet of Chocolate Digestives in my shop will now cost 89p, previously costing 92p. The mighty Jaffa cake was deemed not to be a biscuit (i.e. should have 17.5%15% tax on it but a cake (i.e. no tax charged) because ‘biscuits go hard, cakes go soft’ when they’re stale.
Big bloody wow.
Could we not just have a slash of 2.5% in income tax? That would save me £100 a year. Actually, that’s rubbish too.
The only way this will make a difference to me is I’ll save about £10 on my Christmas present shopping, as I usually spend about £250 at this time of year. So that’s £10 that’ll go on cigarettes or something, which will kill me quicker and increase my chances of needing the services of the NHS! I hope Labour know what they’re doing…
