I still hate the Chancellor

[supertinks]

so this whole VAT cut issue. Not only is it still causing me mountains of hassle at work, but I really am starting to get annoyed with it from a consumer point of view. How is it supposed to encourage me to shop?

I bought fidget a new collar yesterday, as he lost his purple one (the new one is an incredibly cutesy pale baby blue - icky, but it was that or baby pink!). It was £2.99 on the shelf. "Fair enough" says I, and buys it. At the till, I get my VAT discount. A whole 7p. Oooooh.

And today, I bought a skirt from Next (I have a thing about skirts right now, I need more of them! probably because they always fit better than trousers). Label says £30. Goes through the till, it actually costs me £29.36. A saving of a whole 64p. Makes no difference to my brain when it comes to rationalising the cost, because if the label had said £29.36, my brain would have just gone "ok, its £30" and carried on from there.

So what is the point????

Comments

[putrescine.livejournal.com]

I've been wondering the same thing, since loads of businesses aren't even going to pass on the saving - just raise their prices so it stays the same.

And then this morning I found out what it's all about. Small businesses have delayed putting invoices through until this week, thereby charging 15% to their customers, but the raw materials which they bought were all charged at 17.5% which they can reclaim, pocketing the 2.5% difference. It's so the government can give a big wad of cash to businesses, while dressing it up as being consumer-friendly.

If you want to get even more angry about where your tax money is going, read this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7746174.stm).

[supertinks.livejournal.com]

you're the second person who's pointed that article out to me today in those tones (Jamie emailed it to me this morning) :-)

[black-faery.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly!

That 2.13% saving is not going to get me out spending more money. Yes, fine, at work it's saving us something like £1,200. On our £50k rent.

It's all perspective. A £500 TV you'd save something like £8. And of course, that's the difference between buying a purchase of that size or not. Right? Er...

(Also, skirts are awesome. Next have/had some really funky tartan ones that I liked a lot, and I may treat myself now that my car service and MOT cost less than planned!)

[putrescine.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sorry, that was a bit Daily Mail of me. It just annoys me because people like that make life harder for the people who do actually need the benefits system, such as carers and the disabled.

[supertinks.livejournal.com]

the skirt i bought today is the red check mini skirt with the asymmetric hemline.

the skirt I am wearing today is the matching green one (just the knee length variety).

Next have some great stuff in at the moment!

[supertinks.livejournal.com]

you are absolutely right.

this whole country is a shambles

[rwstagg.livejournal.com]

They will be pocketing this difference throughout the entire period, not just the first week/month, and then will no doubt increase their prices by 2.5% once the rate returns to 17.5%.

Of course if lots of stores are in fact doing the VAT discounting at the tills then it won't be businesses that directly benefit at all, it will be the consumers, admitidely to a very small degree. While obviously it's sneaky by the government, you can't entirely blame them for the greed of the small companies.

[black-faery.livejournal.com]

Maybe we could just go set up our own country, say, on the Isle of Wight. Turf off all the OAPs that live there, and only allow people who want to work, people with intelligence and law-abiding citzens. Let the UK fall to pieces and we'll live our own happy little lives :-)

I think it has its merits...