VAT ,... possibly the most invasive tax in Britain .

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sounds like BS to me from Brexit crowd, but i could be wrong. 


One major element of all eu contributions is a percentage of the VAT collected by a country ...  The U.K. Are a population of shoppers so this increases our contributions ....

I don't know how the EU came up with the contrbutions , but it sure isn't sensible ... Or should I say fair.

germany has the largest budget surplus in the EU by a long way .....they have the largest contribution but should it be bigger ? France ploughs its funds into supporting its own interests, so their budget is smaller .... Probably very deliberate

if I remember correctly Luxembourg has the largest surplus per capita ... But there are few people there, plus some very dodgy tax arrangements ....

 
shopping on debt/credit cards, oh how we have all been encouraged to do that to keep the economy growing - BS from our own politicians. 




And all the better if spent on UK services and goods .....

We bought a new shower screen earlier this month - UK made - my mate who installed it was very impressed with it ..................... so bought locally from a small independent family firm, made in UK, installed by UK tax payer .......................

 
What !!!!   Not  Made in China   /  installed by Eastern European. ?    

Am I right in saying that when VAT  came in it was 7.5%     and the government of the day said it would never , ever go over 10%   ?

 
shopping on debt/credit cards, oh how we have all been encouraged to do that to keep the economy growing - BS from our own politicians. 
Nothing wrong with that at all. An easy way to pay and on large purchases boosts your guarantee.

And does not cost you a penny IF you pay it all off at the end of each month.  If you don't then you are stupid, there are plenty of cheaper ways IF you need to borrow.

 
What !!!!   Not  Made in China   /  installed by Eastern European. ?    

Am I right in saying that when VAT  came in it was 7.5%     and the government of the day said it would never , ever go over 10%   ?
I don't know, but do you remember when there were 2 different rates of VAT? I was still at school and working on Saturdays in a shop and you had to press the right button on the till to apply the correct rate of VAT.

Isn't there some EU rule that you can put VAT up but you can never reduce it.  So we can look forward to VAT going down in March 2019 then?

 
Thanks Andy .

Years back we tried to figure out who exactly pays the VAT  ...it went something like this .

Delta buys some copper , wraps it in PVC , calls it cable and flogs it to the wholesalers,    charging VAT .  

Wholesaler applies a mark up , flogs it to a Sparks ..& charges VAT ....sets it against  incoming VAT  

Sparks  installs cable  , applies a mark up .... charges VAT ...sets it against incoming VAT .

Joe Public pays Sparks  incd. VAT  and can't claim it back . 

So it appears that  the VAT increases at every stage  &  the buck stops  with Joe Public.    

 
How did we go from a nation of shop keepers to a nation of shoppers? 

We being the masters of our own demise need to look at things differently, for decades we have been addicted to cheap credit to buy cheap sh1t  from China. Now we need to look at not spending money we don't have and making home grown quality items that need not be binned after the first use.

The vat went down to 15% to stimulate growth during the 2008 crash.

 
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Thanks Andy .

Years back we tried to figure out who exactly pays the VAT  ...it went something like this .

Delta buys some copper , wraps it in PVC , calls it cable and flogs it to the wholesalers,    charging VAT .  

Wholesaler applies a mark up , flogs it to a Sparks ..& charges VAT ....sets it against  incoming VAT  

Sparks  installs cable  , applies a mark up .... charges VAT ...sets it against incoming VAT .

Joe Public pays Sparks  incd. VAT  and can't claim it back . 

So it appears that  the VAT increases at every stage  &  the buck stops  with Joe Public.    


no,everyone would have paid VAT but claimed it back, except for the last person

 
Nothing wrong with that at all. An easy way to pay and on large purchases boosts your guarantee.


You're missing the point. We (as a nation,though certainly not me coz I'm tight) have been spending more than it earns for far too long. So when we go shopping, we end up propping up someone elses economy becuase we make so little these days.  

 
And all the better if spent on UK services and goods .....

We bought a new shower screen earlier this month - UK made - my mate who installed it was very impressed with it ..................... so bought locally from a small independent family firm, made in UK, installed by UK tax payer .......................
IF, but as most stuff comes from China these days. UK manufacturing is fighting back with the drop in the value of Sterling - it's great to see after so many years.

 
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