# UK V.A.T. rate to be reduced to 15%



## z104 (24 Nov 2008)

Would be interested to know your thoughts on how this will affect the south of Ireland now that there will be a 6.5% difference in the V.A.T. rate between the north of the country and the south of the country.


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## johnjoda (24 Nov 2008)

Niallers said:


> Would be interested to know your thoughts on how this will affect the south of Ireland now that there will be a 6.5% difference in the V.A.T. rate between the north of the country and the south of the counrty.


 
E-Flow will be busy sending out more letters( un-paid toll )


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## z104 (24 Nov 2008)

johnjoda said:


> E-Flow will be busy sending out more letters( un-paid toll )


 

Just pay it now, As far as I know the legislation says you have to pay the toll, I don't think it says how soon after you pass you have to the pay.

eflow recommend by 8pm the following evening but is this in the legislation?

I totally forgot and paid a week later, I still received the letter but phoned up and they said they would waive the 40 euro charge.


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## mathepac (24 Nov 2008)

Niallers said:


> ... how this will affect the south of Ireland ...


It will probably effect conties other than Cork, Kerry and Waterford as I think VAT applies in other counties as well.


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## z104 (24 Nov 2008)




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## Dearg Doom (24 Nov 2008)

mathepac is poking fun at your erroneous reference to 'the south' when you obviously mean 'the Republic' (which includes counties, such as Donegal, which is definitely in one and definitely not in the other).


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## ubiquitous (24 Nov 2008)

Dearg Doom said:


> mathepac is poking fun at your erroneous reference to 'the south' when you obviously mean 'the Republic' (which includes counties, such as Donegal, which is definitely in one and definitely not in the other).



Hardly erroneous, but reflective of common usage, even among Donegal folk.


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## z104 (24 Nov 2008)

RTE also commonly refer to Northern Ireland as the North or the north of the country.


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## Sylvester3 (24 Nov 2008)

Its great! My parents in Belfast are going to see so much more of me! And petrol prices have come down at the same time so it is all good news. I spent the weekend walking around the shops in Cork City going to myself - I'm going to get that next weekend, and that next weekend, and I'm going to buy that on-line from the UK and pick it up from my parents. Oh, I'm seeing them this weekend, if you hadn't gathered. Well seeing them as we walk around the shops that is.... 

Christmas shopping with a weak sterling and with reduced VAT to come at some point. Hooray!


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## colly (24 Nov 2008)

What is the rate is the UK now, I thought it was 17.5% but my mate is saying it is 20%.

Also, outs was 21% and it has gone up to 22% in last budget - am I right?


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## z104 (24 Nov 2008)

Vat rate in the UK is 17.5% but going down to 15% Vat rates in the republic is 21% going up to 21.5%


6.5% difference.


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## Sylvester3 (24 Nov 2008)

colly said:


> What is the rate is the UK now, I thought it was 17.5% but my mate is saying it is 20%.



Your mate is wrong. Standard rate of VAT is 17.5%, and has been since the 90's. A news article from the BBC will suffice to back up my statement.

-->>BBC Article on Pretax Announcement<<--


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## SteH (24 Nov 2008)

Great stuff, shops in the republic had it easy for far too long charging what seemed to be more and more each day. Now there is a little competition the head of some useless organisation will be ringing Matt Cooper telling us all that if we only shopped in his store then the recession would end and house prices would go up. A bit of competition is great.


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## ubiquitous (24 Nov 2008)

SteH said:


> A bit of competition is great.



A VAT rate that is 6% more than the equivalent rate in the North (or 38% higher in percentage terms) is not competition, its more a case of taxing ourselves out of existence.


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## bazermc (24 Nov 2008)

Niallers said:


> Vat rate in the UK is 17.5% but going down to 15% Vat rates in the republic is 21% going up to 21.5%
> 
> 
> 6.5% difference.


 
Dont forgot the UK hasnt got a 13.5% rate for property and gas/electricity etc like Ireland does.  So not exactly a 6.5% difference!


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## terrontress (24 Nov 2008)

bazermc said:


> Dont forgot the UK hasnt got a 13.5% rate for property and gas/electricity etc like Ireland does. So not exactly a 6.5% difference!


 
Are you going to pick up a few kilowatts when you are up there?

Bring up a battery charger maybe.

According to 

The UK has a 5% rate on domestic fuel and power so that's a difference of 8.5%. I.e. gas and electricity are 63% less than the ROI rate.


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## bazermc (24 Nov 2008)

Well there is no VAT on new residential property over here, so 13.5% versus 0% is a heck of difference


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## terrontress (24 Nov 2008)

bazermc said:


> Well there is no VAT on new residential property over here, so 13.5% versus 0% is a heck of difference


[broken link removed]

In any case, I don't care. All I know is that living close to the M1 with the border an hour's drive away, I will not shop in ROI unless necessary.

It may be a bit of a pain to get there but let me assure you, going to the Pavillions in Swords is no walk in the park either.


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## bond-007 (24 Nov 2008)

Here was the govt's reaction to the news.


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## Guest124 (24 Nov 2008)

News just in - An Post to create hundreds of jobs to deliver massive increase of online orders from the U.K.


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## ringledman (24 Nov 2008)

The reduction will make the Republic even less attractive to buy anything. 

I come from the Uk, live in Dublin and find the cost of living quite unbelievable!

How can a sandwich cost £2.15 in  Manchester and 4.5 euro here? I really struggle to understand how firms here can justify the costs. 

Dublin is great for shopping but when everything is 40% higher priced I can't understand how they can say shop here instead of going elsewhere to save from a recession.


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## theresa1 (24 Nov 2008)

They want us to vote Yes to Lisbon and then dont go up the North to grab a bargain. I seriously worry for this Country and it's not just the recession. I think the Celtic Tiger acted as a cover to the high prices, incompetience etc. that we have here. The V.A.T. increase here was just crazy and now it's even going to be worse.


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## Joody1 (24 Nov 2008)

The reduction in VAT from 17.5% to 15% is only a temporary measure until 2010, when it will be brought back to 17.5% again. 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7746188.stm

Joody


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## ubiquitous (24 Nov 2008)

Joody1 said:


> The reduction in VAT from 17.5% to 15% is only a temporary measure until 2010, when it will be brought back to 17.5% again.
> 
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7746188.stm
> 
> Joody





When the Irish govt cut Capital Gains Tax to 20% in 1998, they said that it was only a temporary measure for 2 years at which time it would be brought back up to 60%.


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## extopia (24 Nov 2008)

ubiquitous said:


> When the Irish govt cut Capital Gains Tax to 20% in 1998, they said that it was only a temporary measure for 2 years at which time it would be brought back up to 160%.



Well there you go, it's obvious why they didn't change it back then.


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## mathepac (25 Nov 2008)

ubiquitous said:


> When the Irish govt cut Capital Gains Tax to 20% in 1998, they said that it was only a temporary measure for 2 years ...


So is that a demi-permanent or a semi-temporary change?


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## bazermc (25 Nov 2008)

BroadbandKen said:


> News just in - An Post to create hundreds of jobs to deliver massive increase of online orders from the U.K.


 
UK companies distance selling into Ireland and exceeding the sales threshold of €35,000 should be registered for and charging Irish VAT at 21%/21.5% - so technically no rate difference

see link 

http://www.tmf-vat.com/home.php?pageid=57&menuid=375&langid=1


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## bond-007 (25 Nov 2008)

Not many UK companies bother to do it thou. It is up to the revenue here to chase them.


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## Humdinger (25 Nov 2008)

ubiquitous said:


> When the Irish govt cut Capital Gains Tax to 20% in 1998, they said that it was only a temporary measure for 2 years at which time it would be brought back up to 60%.


 
There is nothing as permanent as a temporary government measure ... reference the health levy in the 80's which is still with us. The current income levy will probably be still here in 2020.

Given the continuing slide of sterling, the gap between Uk and Rep of Irl prices can only widen going forward. Southern shoppers heading North will increase.

Currency and Vat account for some of the difference. We will give the benefit of the doubt and say additional transport, cost of sales for retailers and maybe buying power accounts for another %. 
Still does'nt explain it away though.


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## extopia (25 Nov 2008)

ubiquitous said:


> When the Irish govt cut Capital Gains Tax to 20% in 1998, they said that it was only a temporary measure for 2 years at which time it would be brought back up to 60%.



Actually, McCreevy reduced CGT (excepting cgt applicable to disposals of development land) from 40% and 26% to 20% in that budget. And AFAIK there was no mention of it being a temporary measure.


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## HJT (25 Nov 2008)

I spent a couple of hours today ringing stove suppliers all over Ireland including Northern Ireland. There is a difference of €600 in the prices between the Rep and the North. So next week i'm taking a trip to NI to get it along with all the insulation for the house. 

Im fed up of paying high prices for EVERYTHING here


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## anon473 (2 Dec 2008)

just want to resurrect this thread. The UK and Irish governments are facing very similar economic outlooks (Economic slump, credit crunch, loss of conf, end of housing boom etc) and yet they have approached VAT in completely opposite ways. To my mind there are three reasons why this could be.
1....Economic conditions are in fact very different  (the above para is very vague and the detail might be different) i doubt it
2....The two governments have different ideological views how to tackle the problem. 
3....They are trying to tackle two different problems. Irish govt tackling the budget deficit. The british trying to get people to spend (in order to tackle the budget deficit)

instinctively the British approach makes more sense in the medium to long term.
What does anybody else think?

anon473


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## theoneill (2 Dec 2008)

I would agree with you, the British budget seems to be thought out by an economist with the economy in mind. While the Irish budget seems to come from a civil servant with current spending in the public sector in mind. But then again I’m not an economist or a civil servant.


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## ubiquitous (2 Dec 2008)

extopia said:


> Actually, McCreevy reduced CGT (excepting cgt applicable to disposals of development land) from 40% and 26% to 20% in that budget. And AFAIK there was no mention of it being a temporary measure.



This 1999 Revenue CGT Guide states "Disposals of land zoned for residential development under a County Development Plan on or after 6 April 2002 will be liable at 60%."

www.basis.ie/servlet/blobservlet/guidetoCGT.pdf?language=EN


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