Online Sales Tax (1 Viewer)

Deleted member 5849 · Jul 27, 2020

A good or a bad thing?

shmmeee · Jul 27, 2020

All sales taxes are regressive IMO. Also I don’t fetishise high streets but instead fetishise technological progress and efficient resource usage. So I’m all for online shops destroying bricks and mortar if that’s what the market wants.

Better to tax warehousing and distribution better IMO. But I don’t see what the value to the taxpayer is in propping up high street retail. It needs to change with the times. There’s value in social spaces, but that doesn’t have to be PoundLand.

Sky_Blue_Dreamer · Jul 27, 2020

Not got a problem with them on the whole. Evens out the marketplace otherwise as habits change it's just losing out on a lot of tax revenue.

Without it you're effectively killing off the retailer as if you could sell online the distributor/manufacturer will just miss out the middleman and sell it themselves without the tax whereas a normal retailer would have to include a mark-up for themselves.

Sales tax are, at the moment on the whole, regressive but that could be made more progressive by charging sales tax based on price, much like income tax rates increase with earnings. At the moment it's an almost arbitrary definition of what is considered a necessity and a luxury - some very odd discrepancies there - so remove those and just say anything under £x is 5%, under £y is 10% etc

Nick · Jul 27, 2020

For stuff like eBay etc? Has there been an announcement or something?

Deleted member 5849 · Jul 27, 2020

Nick said:
For stuff like eBay etc? Has there been an announcement or something?

Rishi Sunak considers online sales tax in bid to save high street

Rishi Sunak is considering a new tax on goods sold online amid mounting concern about the collapse of the high street as Britain emerges from the coronavirus crisis.The chancellor is examining proposals for an online sales tax to provide a “sustainable and meaningful revenue source for the governme

www.thetimes.co.uk

Nick · Jul 27, 2020

Ah!

I might be missing it and you will know more, is there anything to save the high street with schemes to encourage people to take on shops?

clint van damme · Jul 27, 2020

Nick said:
Ah!

I might be missing it and you will know more, is there anything to save the high street with schemes to encourage people to take on shops?

Slash rates?

Sky_Blue_Dreamer · Jul 27, 2020

clint van damme said:
Slash rates?

Usually when they do this it ends up just attracting charity shops, bookies and discount stores, which adds to the low rent feel as are more likely to attractive less affluent people, putting off the bigger, more exclusive retailers.

Nick · Jul 27, 2020

clint van damme said:
Slash rates?

Have they said that?

They need to make it worth people opening a shop rather than just selling it online.

I have no incentive to go into town for anything, why would I? Putting the prices up won't force me to go into town.

clint van damme · Jul 27, 2020

Nick said:
Have they said that?

They need to make it worth people opening a shop rather than just selling it online.

I have no incentive to go into town for anything, why would I? Putting the prices up won't force me to go into town.

no, just a suggestion. The problem is now that everyone thinking of opening a business is going to consider the effects of another lock down and I think that will put a lot of people off.

Nick · Jul 27, 2020

clint van damme said:
no, just a suggestion. The problem is now that everyone thinking of opening a business is going to consider the effects of another lock down and I think that will put a lot of people off.

Yeah exactly, people are currently doing the opposite. They are seeing they can work from home and don't need the overheads of the office in town.

People need incentives to want to have a brick and mortar shop in town as opposed to keeping all of their stock with Amazon and letting them ship it etc. Same as if they just made a web shop.

xcraigx · Jul 27, 2020

A 2% online tax will make no difference to the high street whatsoever. It's a money maker, one of many that will undoubtedly be rolled out in the next few months to start paying for the past few months.

Does anyone else work in retail? I see the national footfall is around 40% down year on year on the high street and I'm trading nearer 55% down. Discounted rates and rents will only get you so far, there are still plenty of other expenses and if nobody's shopping then you're not making any money.

David O'Day · Jul 27, 2020

xcraigx said:
A 2% online tax will make no difference to the high street whatsoever. It's a money maker, one of many that will undoubtedly be rolled out in the next few months to start paying for the past few months.

Does anyone else work in retail? I see the national footfall is around 40% down year on year on the high street and I'm trading nearer 55% down. Discounted rates and rents will only get you so far, there are still plenty of other expenses and if nobody's shopping then you're not making any money.

Company I work with are about 50% down for footfall but 80% up online

xcraigx · Jul 27, 2020

David O'Day said:
Company I work with are about 50% down for footfall but 80% up online

I'm 500% up online which sounds lovely but realistically I've gone from taking peanuts to 5 times as many peanuts. Over the past 3 months I think many older people in particular have discovered the internet it pretty handy for shopping. I'll be surprised if high street footfall gets within 15% of pre lockdown levels and for many businesses that's their profit margin gone. It's going to be a bloodbath come January. I know furlough ends in October but I think most places will try and see out Xmas before calling it a day.

Deleted member 5849 · Jul 27, 2020

xcraigx said:
I'm 500% up online which sounds lovely but realistically I've gone from taking peanuts to 5 times as many peanuts. Over the past 3 months I think many older people in particular have discovered the internet it pretty handy for shopping. I'll be surprised if high street footfall gets within 15% of pre lockdown levels and for many businesses that's their profit margin gone. It's going to be a bloodbath come January. I know furlough ends in October but I think most places will try and see out Xmas before calling it a day.

If they wanted to preserve the High Street rather than just raise revenue, perhaps a system where there are rebates if the High Street takes a certain percentage of total income would be worth looking at?

skybluesam66 · Jul 27, 2020

would be very harmful for the Small online businesses

Mcbean · Jul 27, 2020

The big killer is business rates - charity shops don’t have to pay - however locally in Stratford the council is doing a fabulous job by removing all on street parking so that the queues of customers who can’t park can get into the shops - it’s a ghetto

shmmeee · Jul 28, 2020

If high street retail is such a noble aim (I remain unconvinced of that premise), then surely you’ve got to fund local government properly and stop forcing them to make their money in rates?

Slashing business rates just slashes social care spending and the like. If central government desperately want land taken up by posh middle aged women selling tat rather than things that are economically and socially useful, they should directly subsidise Karen’s Knick knack shop, not put the burden on the shoulders of the most vulnerable.

wingy · Jul 28, 2020

You'd have to think it's fair if trading online is becoming a virtual monopoly?
I'd much rather have an effective method to make the tech giants pay their way though.

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