2009/2010 V.A.T. cuts from 17.5% to 15%
The report didn't go as well as he'd imagined.
This is an issue that I'm sure many people have become increasingly annoyed about since it's passing.
Many people are questioning why the government made the choice to cut VAT, instead of considering the many other options sitting at the table.
Everyone has their own opinion on this, but to me it seems almost absurd to cut the prices on products when we are heading into a recession, and have no money to purchase products in the first place. In my opinion, the government should have placed the money in our pockets so that we'd have something to spend, rather than flashing us cheaper price tags that we just cant afford.
When I say 'cheaper' price tags, these are by no means 'cheap' price tags. The reduction of 2.5% (17.5% - 15%) sounds great, but when you analyse it you realise that if you were to spend £25.00 in a shop, you would only actually make a saving of 50 pence. An unoticable amount from anyones wallet. To compensate for this decrease, taxes will now be raised in the near future. This won't be good for the working/middle class at all. In all honesty, this is not good news for anyone as taxes will also be raised for people with higher incomes (new rate of 45% if you earn over £150,000 P/A).
What this whole argument boils down to is the way in which these new laws have been passed. Labour have planned their whole financial report to fit with the upcoming General Election. This means that if, or probably when everything does go wrong, they will already have been voted out of power and they will no longer have to deal with the horrific aftermath of their terrible doings.
Labour are almost completely to blame for the financial crisis we are now in, and their plans can only make it worse. Many agree that the VAT cut will do nothing for anybody.
December 4th, 2008 - 02:39
An interesting read. Some Valid points made here.
Another point you could have touched on is that, they decided not to reduce VAT on alchol, fags and petrol, the 3 most popular consumables.
Keep up the good work.
February 18th, 2009 - 14:27
cut in VAT – a complete waste of time – you forgot to mention the money spent marketing and administering this change in VAT – the millions of hours lost while small businesses, sole traders and the like change all their invoices, vat returns, remember, forget make mistakes.
Couldnt they have cut business rates or council tax – help us out a bit – enough energy coupons for the winter would have been a welcome – there are no gifts here, this is government and a nation which has no concept of generosity, mean with the people, mean with each other – an economy of greed has gotten us here – sack um all.
time for radical change indeed.