TOPIC:

All i can say is it's time for all us homebrewers to become totally self sufficient.
Im getting sick of a paying taxes to a government that classes TOILET PAPER as a luxury item (Check the VAT section on a receipt from lidl it's the same 23% as beer and chocolate i.e. luxury goods)

Minimum pricing on alcohol, as has been mentioned above will only serve to increase VAT revenue. It will NOT stop people who want a drink from having one, or finding the money from somewhere. In the same way that ever increasing cigarette and tobacco prices have not deterred very many smokers from their habit, and in fact has caused the black market for smuggled tobacco to grow hugely in this country.

"Drum":16jz50x0 wrote: All i can say is it's time for all us homebrewers to become totally self sufficient.
Im getting sick of a paying taxes to a government that classes TOILET PAPER as a luxury item (Check the VAT section on a receipt from lidl it's the same 23% as beer and chocolate i.e. luxury goods)

Minimum pricing on alcohol, as has been mentioned above will only serve to increase VAT revenue. It will NOT stop people who want a drink from having one, or finding the money from somewhere. In the same way that ever increasing cigarette and tobacco prices have not deterred very many smokers from their habit, and in fact has caused the black market for smuggled tobacco to grow hugely in this country.[/quote:16jz50x0]
They will just have to cut back on luxury items like toilet roll to get their drink then.

"Drum":1gs9p8fg wrote: Im getting sick of a paying taxes to a government that classes TOILET PAPER as a luxury item (Check the VAT section on a receipt from lidl it's the same 23% as beer and chocolate i.e. luxury goods)
[/quote:1gs9p8fg]

I keep hearing people on the radio describe 23% VAT as a tax on luxury goods. It's not, it's the standard rate of VAT on pretty much all goods. The biggest exception from standard rate VAT is that grocery food is 0%.

No bill yet, but here[/url:2viqdthj]'s the Department of Health press release. It looks like they're still not sure what they're doing as regards structural separation of alcohol from other goods. Structural separation, incidentally, means[/url:2viqdthj] "a wall or similar barrier" so I think we are talking cattle runs here.

Will be interesting to see if this is challenged especially as the scottish situation seems to be being challenged by alcohol producers not based in Scotland.

Also it will be interesting to see how policed the segregation part is - no problem for the large multiples to implement but maybe the spars/centras et al may find it a bit more difficult due to space.

"Diablo":13257y21 wrote:

"Drum":13257y21 wrote: Im getting sick of a paying taxes to a government that classes TOILET PAPER as a luxury item (Check the VAT section on a receipt from lidl it's the same 23% as beer and chocolate i.e. luxury goods)
[/quote:13257y21]

I keep hearing people on the radio describe 23% VAT as a tax on luxury goods. It's not, it's the standard rate of VAT on pretty much all goods. The biggest exception from standard rate VAT is that grocery food is 0%.[/quote:13257y21]

According to citizens information there are actually 5 different VAT rates in effect (23%, 13.5%, 9%, 4.8% and 0%)
The 9 and 4.8 % are specific to tourism and agriculture, and the other 3 cover everything else
[url:13257y21]http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/money_and_tax/tax/duties_and_vat/value_added_tax.html[/url:13257y21]

Perhaps luxury item is not the official or correct term, but when i look at the products listed as examples for each band there is a clear division between things that are a basic necessities in the 0% band (milk, bread, childrens clothes),and things which are not really needed to survive, but that we all want to have in the 23% band (alcohol, computers, cds etc). While the 13.5% band contains items which aren't really necessary to live but are hard to live without (electricity, coal, vet services).
Surely common sense would dictate that a basic hygene product should fall into one of the lower bands?

Maybe 'non essential item' would have been a better term to use than 'luxury' in my first post. And i could probably have found a less petty example to use.But i thought that such a small thing was a good illustration of the point i was trying to make. which is that those in charge of the country have no problem sqeezing every penny they can from our pockets in ways they think no one will notice, and minimum pricing on alcohol is just another attempt at doing so.

Sbillings said above that those paying above the minimum wont notice and only the poor will be affected, And I have to agree with that.

"Saruman":13257y21 wrote: They will just have to cut back on luxury items like toilet roll to get their drink then.[/quote:13257y21]
And there will be the odd [b:13257y21]extreme[/b:13257y21] case where some alcoholic will choose a cheap bottle of wine over a pack of toilet paper or decent food for their kids or whatever they deem less important than getting drunk at the time.

Im not having a go at anyone i just wanted to try and clarify the points i was trying to make.


ok rant over