Posted by : Tom Doyle in (Internet & Computers) 3rd Dec, 2008
And on that note…. VAT increases in Ireland, who has passed it on?
Tagged Under : Tax, Value added tax, VAT, Vodafone
As we all know at this stage, the VAT increase has been in effect since Monday, but have we really noticed any difference? How many retailers have you seen adding on the increased VAT rate to it’s customers? I thought it would be quite interesting to know.
I asked a friend of mine who works in a Sony store, what they have done about the VAT increase. Interestingly his reply was “We absorbed it, we simply had to. Times are hard”. I was delighted to hear this, as I believed most retailers would simply add it on. Having looked around in other stores, there are no obvious signs of an increase in prices, I know it’s a tiny increase and would be hard to find. But my telltale sign was old looking pricing labels that obviously hadn’t been changed.
On the flip side - ValueIreland have an article on how the Toll on the M4 has increased by 4% to €2.80. Listening to NewsTalk this morning, each time they announced the number for texting your comments to, they had to include a disclaimer, “prices on Vodafone may be more expensive as they have applied the increased tax rate“.
If I’m to be honest, this is what I expected from most retail outlets, stealth increases to coincide with the VAT increase, but so far, this doesn’t appear to be true in most places.
I hope that this will be a continuing trend - but if you have noticed increases in places, please post the names here!
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I’ve noticed a couple of retailers have added ½% to the previously VAT inclusive price rather than the VAT exclusive.
That to me is downright cheating.
Wow, now that is nasty!! Willing to share who this was?
I’d be run out of town if I said! It was a local shop.
I find it a very common practice for all increases imposed on retailers. For example, when Guinness upped the cost price by 2% this year, every publican upped their price by 2% of their existing retail price. Oh, and then rounded up.
I was looking at a sim-free Nokia e71 last week. 2 sites I checked have increased the price this week from €407->427 and €389->€427.
Coincidence? Perhaps. Maybe supplies are tight…
Of course same phone with a contract in the UK or NL is free. Explain me that given that we talk more than any other nation (apparently)
I have spent some time trying to find out the VAT rates on food items, as some is zero rated and some not… the reason for this is: my wife was charged 1.55 for sausage that last week cost 1.40, when asked about the increase was told “the vat’s gone up” can anyone please explain?