VAT coming to apps and digital downloads :(

Glaucus said:
Because changing a device that costs hundreds and throwing away all your apps, is really a free market :rolleyes:
There is no direct competition between them, if you own an iphone you can hardly use the Microsoft store.
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As I said above, I can't use OS X applications on Windows and vice versa. That doesn't mean it's a monopoly. The same applies to smartphones.

People change their phones all they while. I've gone from an iPhone 4s to a Nexus 4 to both and iPhone 5 and Nexus 4.

What I do, and I suspect that people don't, is make sure my data is universally accessible. That way, changing from phone to phone is fairly easy. Yes I understand I won't be able to run iOS apps on Android but I understand I can't do that in the desktop world either.

None of this makes it a monopoly, locked in to some extent sure.
 
Makes sense, better that the govt get all of the monies rather than it all being pumped in the Luxembourg or some other tax haven. The vast majority of apps and downloads will still be less than £1 so it will hardly destroy your disposable income.
 
We already pay VAT on digital goods from UK sellers. All this is doing is levelling the playing field.

I agree with others though. It seems this government is happy to close tax loopholes that benefit normal people but has little interest in closing the tax loopholes exploited by the richest people in society. I realise that these loopholes tend to be harder to close but very little has been achieved.
 
Tunney said:
We already pay VAT on digital goods from UK sellers. All this is doing is levelling the playing field.

I agree with others though. It seems this government is happy to close tax loopholes that benefit normal people but has little interest in closing the tax loopholes exploited by the richest people in society. I realise that these loopholes tend to be harder to close but very little has been achieved.
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Why would they want to do that, most of the conservative party are made of up multiple millionaires so fixing a tax loophole that would cause them to lose money.

Isn't going to happen!
 
Tunney said:
We already pay VAT on digital goods from UK sellers. All this is doing is levelling the playing field.

I agree with others though. It seems this government is happy to close tax loopholes that benefit normal people but has little interest in closing the tax loopholes exploited by the richest people in society. I realise that these loopholes tend to be harder to close but very little has been achieved.
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Really? There is a LOT of money made in mobile purchases at the moment. Candy Crush sage alone makes almost $1million PER DAY (source). I'm aware that it's a world-wide figure rather than the UK specifically but it shows you the level of money in that market.

They have made a rule change so that the UK government is taking the tax revenues rather than Luxembourg. Our VAT rate happens to be at 20% rather than Luxembourg 15%.

I see no reason at all that it should be tax-free.
 
ci_newman said:
Really? There is a LOT of money made in mobile purchases at the moment. Candy Crush sage alone makes almost $1million PER DAY.
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Sorry, let me clarify: very little is being achieved in stopping the richest in society from exploiting tax loopholes.

Closing this particular loophole will no doubt raise quite a bit of money. Enough to reverse the cuts to legal aid, for example. However, it's going to hit those at the bottom the hardest as a proportion of their income.
 
Tunney said:
Sorry, let me clarify: very little is being achieved in stopping the richest in society from exploiting tax loopholes.

Closing this particular loophole will no doubt raise quite a bit of money. Enough to reverse the cuts to legal aid, for example. However, it's going to hit those at the bottom the hardest as a proportion of their income.
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That is most certainly up for debate. I disagree that VAT is regressive.
 
scorza said:
In that case I will take a position that the Pope is not in fact, a Catholic.
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scorza said:
VAT is highly regressive because poor people spend a greater proportion of their income than rich people, so are hit harder by it. It's a rather patronising view that "the poor" are people who only spend on non-VAT attracting items - they are people like everyone else and will spend money on so called luxury items from time to time.
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judgeneo said:
The truly poor won't. But anyway, only the rich will be in a position where they are saving for savings sake, rather than saving to spend on expensive taxable goods such as a car or house, or to pass on to others like living costs for their kids at uni (alcohol tax), holidays (air travel tax, and VAT on items to use for holidays) or to relatives on death (inheritance tax).

Those with highest income in the country will be hit by VAT less hard you are right - but removing or even reforming VAT is much less of a solution than introducing new taxes that they will be hit by. VAT is among the fairest of taxes imo.
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Lets pick this up then.
 
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