Tax Equality Day 7.5% Discount

[anything I don't mind]

http://www.bitterwallet.com/wetherspoons-tax-free-boozing-on-wednesday/79076

Yep. 7.5% discount all day at certain pubs. Enjoy it while you can.

 

[PapaLazaru]

Sweet. Going to go and get smashed for even cheaper with all the old alcoholic pensioners and people on 'the sick'.

 

[Cosimo]

Not just Wetherspoons as around 15,000 pubs will be doing this today.

 

[antijoke]

I assume supermarkets paying zero VAT on food is in the restaurants?

If so why do pubs not have zero VAT? Seems unfair.

 

[Burnsy2023]

I assume supermarkets paying zero VAT on food is in the restaurants?

If so why do pubs not have zero VAT? Seems unfair.

Lets be clear here, it's not pubs or supermarkets paying the tax, it's the consumer. Secondly, buying core foodstuffs in a supermarket is different to going out for a meal. One is basic feeding yourself, the other one is more of a luxury and that's why the tax rates are different.

 

[anything I don't mind]

Lets be clear here, it's not pubs or supermarkets paying the tax, it's the consumer. Secondly, buying core foodstuffs in a supermarket is different to going out for a meal. One is basic feeding yourself, the other one is more of a luxury and that's why the tax rates are different.

How did you work that one out, genius.

Does that mean pubs don't buy anything, the customer buys it all?

 

[Burnsy2023]

How did you work that one out, genius.

Does that mean pubs don't buy anything, the customer buys it all?

All the pubs stock will be sold with the whole cost of VAT added to the price, as long as a pub controls their stock properly it's the consumer who foots the bill. Which is why on business expenses, companies can reclaim this VAT.

 

[anything I don't mind]

So with supermarkets its different? I don't see your point.

Any business is not always in a position to pass the price of VAT on to their customers. If the market they operate in is very competitive, they can't just charge £6 a pint, they end up charging the same price that they would if the was no vat and the vat comes out of their profit.

When businesses make purchases then they can claim back their vat. But when making sales, the vat is payable by the business. The customer ultimately pays a higher price but the business still pays it.

 

[antijoke]

Lets be clear here, it's not pubs or supermarkets paying the tax, it's the consumer. Secondly, buying core foodstuffs in a supermarket is different to going out for a meal. One is basic feeding yourself, the other one is more of a luxury and that's why the tax rates are different.

Why/who decides eating out at a supermarket is different to eating in a pub?

Why is eating in a pub considered a luxury?



You talk about core food stuffs, but I'm not asking that, the article in the OP seems to indicate customes pay zero VAT to eat at a supermarket restaurant as opposed to having to pay 20% to eat in a pub.

 

[Freakbro]

Why/who decides eating out at a supermarket is different to eating in a pub?

Why is eating in a pub considered a luxury?

Food you buy to prepare yourself (ie: from a supermarket) is zero rated in the main - exception of luxuries, like cakes etc

Eating in a Pub is not a 'luxury' but it is a 'service' hence it is VATable

You talk about core food stuffs, but I'm not asking that, the article in the OP seems to indicate customes pay zero VAT to eat at a supermarket restaurant as opposed to having to pay 20% to eat in a pub.

I don't get that inference from the article, and that certainly wouldn't be the case. Once a Supermarket prepares food to sell in it's restaurant, it would be VATable.

 

[:(Rhodri:)]

I believe you pay VAT on all food to be consumed on premises, or served hot as take away.

 

[alx]

Why/who decides eating out at a supermarket is different to eating in a pub?

Why is eating in a pub considered a luxury?



You talk about core food stuffs, but I'm not asking that, the article in the OP seems to indicate customes pay zero VAT to eat at a supermarket restaurant as opposed to having to pay 20% to eat in a pub.

Where does it specify supermarket restuarants? I thought it's just talking about supermarkets purchasing food.

 

[Burnsy2023]

I don't get that inference from the article, and that certainly wouldn't be the case. Once a Supermarket prepares food to sell in it's restaurant, it would be VATable.

Bingo.

 

[antijoke]

UK supermarkets pay no VAT on food, whereas pubs pay 20%. The company said this economic disadvantage has contributed to the closure of many thousands of pubs.

That part is what got me. I took that to mean pubs were saying it's unfair supermarkets do not charge 20% VAT on food they supply in restaurants whereas pubs do.

 

[D.P.]

That part is what got me. I took that to mean pubs were saying it's unfair supermarkets do not charge 20% VAT on food they supply in restaurants whereas pubs do.

That would be illegal, supermarkets have to charge VAT on any food item that is not a basic consumable (fruit, veg, flour, sugar, meat, milk, etc). As soon as the foodstuff is prepared (frozen pizza, microwave curry, doughnut) they have to charge VAT.

Supermarkets charge the same VAT on beer as a pub must charge.

 

[antijoke]

Pardon?

I am not talking about alcohol, I didn't know supermarket restaurants served pints.

It looks like I just read too much into it and took away something the article wasn't saying.

I know full well the fact some foods have no VAT at a supermarket, what I didn't see was clear was the restaurant side of things.

 

[Kemik]

It looks like I just read too much into it and took away something the article wasn't saying.

Wetherspoons are comparing you buying food from a supermarket and going home to cook it, or buying a ready meal, to going to their pub and buying food. They say it is no different. They are wrong in that buying food stuffs is a basic need. Buying a ready meal and warm pub grub is a luxury.

 

[pitchfork]

I have some distaste of wetherspoons because no doubt they have been the demise of many independent establishments.

That said I admire some of their business values with the way they have restored some interesting buildings and brought a varied bar to my doorstep, I enjoy cheap beer and I find their steaks to be very reasonably priced and well cooked for a pub.

I support anything which makes beer in pubs cheaper, the government relentlessly targets drinkers and I'm bloody sick of it. Sod off and let me enjoy myself you high vis wearing urine troughs.

I mean it's not enough that I work and pay my tax but I'm to be relentlessly hounded about the fact I enjoy socialising at the pub instead of sitting on the sofa letting my brain rot to the sound of the eastenders theme tune. And relentlessly taxed on it what is more.

This country was built by people who spent their evenings at the pub drinking tan and blacks in the company of their mates.

Enough I say, I support the reduction of tax in pubs by way of offsetting their idiotic minimum pricing strategies, by way of offsetting the duty imposed on it and supporting the british brewing industry at the same time.

 

[dirtychinchilla]

I'd love to be able to go round to a coffee shop and have a doobie. It's better than sitting on the sofa letting my brain rot to the sound of the Eastender's theme tune.

 

[Burnsy2023]

Enough I say, I support the reduction of tax in pubs by way of offsetting their idiotic minimum pricing strategies, by way of offsetting the duty imposed on it and supporting the british brewing industry at the same time.

You do realise alcohol abuse is one of the (if not the) most serious issues facing public health, policing and British society as a whole? Pricing is one of the most effective way of curbing an issue that affects so many people on a daily basis.