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> In England some items are zero rated, (most food, children's clothes, books etc) and other items have lower rates. That does not exist in the EU any more. On
by the_mitsuhiko 11y ago
> In England some items are zero rated, (most food, children's clothes, books etc) and other items have lower rates.
That does not exist in the EU any more. Only products that did not have VAT at the time of introduction of the VAT system can retain it. Austria has no VAT free items as an example.
> There's a pretty vigorous campaign to move tampons and pads to the zero rate.
Pointless campaign because it cannot be done. You cannot remove VAT under EU regulations from an item.
- Symbiote 11y agoIt's a pointless campaign because the tax on a year's worth of tampons is about 75p. Books, most food etc are still zero rated in the UK. It's fairer, VAT is a regressive tax, and this helps a little.
- eru 11y agoWhy not just give poor people money, instead of lowering taxes on specific things that are also consumed by rich people..
- alextgordon 11y ago> Pointless campaign because it cannot be done. You cannot remove VAT under EU regulations from an item. There's a referendum coming up to do just that...
- the_mitsuhiko 11y ago> There's a referendum coming up to do just that... And if they leave the EU they can do whatever they want. But we can also discuss a few other purely hypothetical situations.
- _delirium 11y agoRealistically, probably not even then, since following the EU VAT rules is a condition of access to the Common Market free-trade zone. That's why Switzerland and Norway also implement them, despite not being EU members. It's possible the UK could pull out of even the Common Market, not only the EU, but so far even the "leave" campaigners are saying that won't happen.