Tag Archives: taxes

Vat reduced to 15% to push our economy

As you know the VAT rate has been reduced from 17.5% to 15%. The Change of Rate Order is valid from 1st December 2008 to 31st December 2009. The Chancellor announced this decision in the Pre-Budget Report on 24th November 2008 to cut the prices of any sales and services in an attempt to push the economy.

The proposal of cutting Value Added Tax comes from the European Commission to help the worldwide financial situation and promote the Internal Market (production and use of energy-saving materials and energy-efficient appliances and equipment) and UK government accepted a challenge that should positively impact all of us.

Services relating to many sectors (including housing construction, renovation, repair, maintenance, cultural heritage and historical monuments) will see their rates reduced. Only standard-rated sales are affected, so there are no changes to sales that are zero-rated or reduced-rated for VAT, similarly, there are no changes to the VAT exemptions. The 15% rate will remain until 31st December 2009, and from 1st January 2010 it will revert to 17.5%. Genuine commercial transactions should not be affected. All the details are in the written statement to be made by the Financial Secretary to the Treasury on 25th November 2008.

So enjoy the reduction and think positively and don’t forget to update the prices of your products and services.

Interest rates, taxes, mortgages and the new Budget…

…the four key words of today. Everyday we receive new dark reports from the economic world about the imminent financial crisis in Uk. For example? The Guardian underlines again: “Britain will be one of the developed countries worst affected by the severest recession to hit the global economy since the early 1980s. The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said it expected unemployment across its 30 rich-country members to rise by 8 million to 42 million by 2010 as all parts of the West felt the effects of the financial crisis”. “Britain’s economy may not begin to grow again until the end of next year”, – explains The Timesonline.co.uk agreeing with most international opinion.

The Guardian goes on to say that the Governor of the Bank of England may work on the interest rates: “Interest rates may have to be cut more aggressively to ensure that businesses and consumers benefit from cheaper borrowing”. The Timesonline.co.uk states: “mortgage lending slipped back towards a record low in October, as consumers turned to their deposits to fund other spending”. In the meantime “Prime Minister Gordon Brown swept aside three decades of economic orthodoxy with tax increases on the rich” and plans that, Bloomberg says, “will double Britain’s national debt”.

BBC.co.uk publishes all the documents about the Pre-Budget Report: the latest tax and economic forecasts and future departmental spending plans. Have a look at them and let’s see what they will mean for us.