VAT rise to 20% will stay, Cameron hints (U.K.)

BBC News ^ | 1/9/11 | Unspecified

[exbrit]

Prime Minister David Cameron has hinted that the rise in VAT from 17.5% to 20% will be permanent.

He said measures to tackle the budget deficit would have to be "pretty permanent" - but he hoped the 50p tax rate for top earners would be scrapped.

He also told the BBC the coalition was "strong" and would not change course because of the threat of strikes.

Labour's Alan Johnson said it would be "extraordinary" to scrap the 50p rate, not the VAT rise which hit the poor.

Last week's VAT rise is the second increase in a year, after Labour chancellor Alistair Darling restored the 17.5% rate in January 2010, having temporarily reduced it to 15% for 13 months to stimulate the economy.

[exbrit]

20% tax on goods and services in U.K. Be warned, I remember as a teenager working in a local store when VAT first was approved, we retagged all the goods on the shelves. The VAT was 1.75%. The Iron Lady had it correct, the problem with socialism is eventually they run out of other peoples money to spend.

[EGPWS]

From each according to their ability do something with personal pride, to each according to their need to sit on their asses and complain.

[oilfieldtrash]

Here in Norway where I have the misfortune of being stationed we pay 25%.

[bboop]

This is why I am not in favor of a flat tax of any kind. How easy it is to say, “Let’s raise it ONE percent to make up the deficit.” Let Congress be tangled in the same tax laws we are tangled in. At least it makes them work for our money.

[The Duke]

REGRESSIVE_TAX_PING

[Winniesboy]

The original rate of VAT in the UK, when it was introduced by a Conservative government in 1974, was 10%. (I well remember the administrative nightmare this was for a small independent business). It soon went down to 8%, but was up to 15% by 1980. In 1991-92 the government (again Conservative) increased it to 17.5%, where it remained until the recent changes.