Downing Street is drawing up plans to reduce household energy costs and is considering scrapping VAT on fuel bills.
They need – sorry, want – more money. VAT is a not bad way to raise money. Stamp duty, CGT, profits taxes etc etc etc are bad ways to raise money. So, they want money, they’re going to reduce income from a not bad tax and have to make up the difference with worse ones?
Sigh.
It’s just to try and convince us that Mad Miliband’s insane plan is working.
They promised to reduce bills by £300 while giving Mad Milliband free rein to increase bills by whatever he feels like. You might think that this self-inflicted problem could more easily be solved by grabbing said madman by the throat and throwing him into the sea but they never do take the simple option.
VAT on fuel bills is a much larger proportion of overall costs for Poor People™ than it is for (spit) Rich People™, whereas those other taxes are irrelevant for Poor People™ but of great significance for Rich People™. So, this is redistributive in the right direction towards the client group.
Never mind the actual economics and lower order effects. Socialist Allahu Akbar.
Not really, it fits the way govt does business these days.
Rob Peter but pay Paul a tiny fraction of what he’s owed.
Moreover it makes good headlines in the more credulous newspapers and TV channels.
I thought our Lords and Masters wanted to align with the sainted EU? Isn’t VAT on fuel at 5% because thats the lowest rate the EU would let us have at the time? Are Starmer and Co going to [gasp] diverge from the EU using powers gained under Brexit???
…unless the EU is planning the same trick. Starmer would know.
It can soon be imposed again if the decide the want to rejoin.
The bigger problem they would face if they want to rejoin is that they wouldn’t get all the opt outs and rebates we had and would have to sign up to the Euro. The thing is that when polls say that people think Brexit was a mistake they assume we would go back in on the same terms. Trying to win a rejoin referendum or a big enough Parliamentary majority to rejoin on new terms will be nigh on impossible.
I don’t think Brexit was a mistake, but (like Farage) am happy to agree that the way it’s been implemented has been, if not a disaster, at least pretty poor. It seems plausible that there’s majority support for such a view, although that in turn probably represents a myriad views of what ought to have been done – from joining EFTA to Singapore-on-Thames.
But I’m very sceptical that they could find a majority to support rejoining, particularly on the penal terms the EU would gleefully impose.
Brexit was necessary, but predictably sabotaged by our ruing elite, with Starmer and that cunt Grieve in the lead. It’s hardly surprising a majority now thinks it’s a mistake; they have short memories and can only see the absence of the freedom that was promised, and the gimmegrant surge when Brexit was supposed to stop all that.
As you say though, rejoining is another matter. The terms will be a punishment beating and that will be very hard to hide. All that assumes France doesn’t collapse first, mind. Then: what EU?
I got what I wanted from Brexit: MPs can’t hide behind the EU and have to make their own cases for legislation and then defend it.
As I’ve said before, I don’t think we’ll start to see any real benefits until the vast majority of MPs entered Parliament after the Brexit process was done and dusted. To that end I was listening to the Labour MP Josh Simon and he certainly gets it and name checked a few other MPs from all parties from the last intake who understand Parliament is sovereign.
They could drop bills by half over night if they repealed some green laws 🙂
Given the current and last two government hates second homes, how about energy VAT being raised to 20% for these along. And caravans. The bastards love taxes which are narrow based, distortionary and difficult to collect, so go torsten on that.
I’m old, so memory may be failing, but wasn’t the Winter Fuel Allowance in whole or part intended to offset the effects of taxes like VAT on keeping warm in the winter?
I would have said rush it through for non-domestic users while we still have any manufacturing capacity left.
But that would be nonsense as 99% of them claim the VAT back anyway. It’s the green subsidies and tariffs that are crippling them (and us).
It’s a crumb for the fractious Great Unwashed to “prove” Labour is bringing energy prices down.
Most people won’t feel any effect from CGT, profit taxes, Stamp Duty but everyone will benefit from reduced VAT.
Again, I’m astounded by the similarity between Oz and the UK on this. Labor here were getting a lot of bad press on completely failing to reduce electricity bills by $275 a year as promised prior to 2022 (they had modelling to prove it!), so they brought in a non means tested, everyone gets it $300 annual rebate. There you go, promise delivered. And we just re elected the pricks so they’re claiming a mandate for full steam ahead.
Credit where credit’s due though, my black market cigarettes have dropped in price by 30% over the last 18 months. Cost of living wise, works for me.
Must admit I think that raising the taxes on cigarettes to the extent that a black market can flourish is completely idiotic.
But no doubt Albo’d point out that I didn’t vote for him, so why should I expect him to pander to my prejudices.
What a marvellous Weird Ed story: “The electric car collided with an electricity pole and then caught fire”.
https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/cambridgeshire-road-closed-after-car-32471768?int_source=mantis_rec&int_medium=web&int_campaign=more_like_this
They’re just trying to stop Reform from shooting their fox.
Won’t work, of course.
Oh come on, socialists want taxes with maximum deadweight costs. That’s how they stick it to the bourgeoisie.