Reduced VAT for tourism, hospitality sectors

Trampas

Supplies of goods and services at the 9% rate
The supply of food and drink (excluding alcohol and soft drinks) in the course of catering or by means of a vending machine
Hot take-away food and hot drinks
Hotel lettings, including guesthouses, caravan parks, camping sites etc
Admissions to cinemas, theatres, certain musical performances, museums, art gallery exhibitions
Amusement services of the kind normally supplied in fairgrounds or amusement park services
The provision of facilities for taking part in sporting activities by a person other than a non-profit making organisation
Printed matter eg newspapers, brochures, leaflets, programmes, maps, catalogues, printed music (excluding books)
Hairdressing services (Note beauty treatments for example, facials, massages, nail treatments, tanning or sunbed services etc., remain liable at the 13.5% rate)

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0701/vat.html

Has anyone seen a reduction yet?

Will your bag of chips be a few cent cheaper tonight on the way home from the pub?

Yes - my paper was a few cents cheaper this morning.

The_Thing

Based on my own recent experience I'd have to say no.

From as far back as I can remember until about three weeks ago a local coffee shop was charging €2.15 for a large black coffee to take away, the exact same coffee now costs €2.30. Overnight they increased their price by 15 Cent.

I stopped going there and I will not be returning. Fcuk them.

Nijmegen

The_Thing wrote: »

Based on my own recent experience I'd have to say no.

From as far back as I can remember until about three weeks ago a local coffee shop was charging €2.15 for a large black coffee to take away, the exact same coffee now costs €2.30. Overnight they increased their price by 15 Cent.

I stopped going there and I will not be returning. Fcuk them.

Food prices are rising globally, that could be having an affect.

n97 mini

Trampas wrote: »

Will your bag of chips be a few cent cheaper tonight on the way home from the pub?

I don't think anyone in my local chipper speaks English, including the owner, so I doubt prices will be any different.

Liam Byrne

How is this actually going to work ?

A haircut is normally a tenner - is it now going to be €9.87 leading to lots of fiddly little coins and crap ?

BOHSBOHS

liam
everything will be rounded up im sure

ex. the indo was 1.90 new price should be 1.82/1.83 but its rounded up to 1.85
so the price of the paper has actually gone up lol!:pac:

Aard

The RTE News website has miscalculated the "new reduced" prices: http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0701/vat.html

For anybody looking to be pedantic, it isn't a simple 4.5% reduction in price, it's a reduction of 4.5 percentage points. You've gotta divide by 1.135 to get the VAT free price, then multiply by 1.09 to get the new price. I can't believe RTE fcuked up on Junior Cert maths.

GSF

Liam Byrne wrote: »

A haircut is normally a tenner - is it now going to be €9.87 leading to lots of fiddly little coins and crap ?

you can haggle with the barber - preferrably when he hasnt the cut throat razor in his hand.

Guys with receding hair should get a discount anyway.

Nijmegen

Aard wrote: »

The RTE News website has miscalculated the "new reduced" prices: http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0701/vat.html

For anybody looking to be pedantic, it isn't a simple 4.5% reduction in price, it's a reduction of 4.5 percentage points. You've gotta divide by 1.135 to get the VAT free price, then multiply by 1.09 to get the new price. I can't believe RTE fcuked up on Junior Cert maths.

I can :-p The media is particularly poor at reporting anything involving sums and figures. Even as simple as discounts and VAT.

Crunchienut

The_Thing wrote: »

Based on my own recent experience I'd have to say no.

From as far back as I can remember until about three weeks ago a local coffee shop was charging €2.15 for a large black coffee to take away, the exact same coffee now costs €2.30. Overnight they increased their price by 15 Cent.

I stopped going there and I will not be returning. Fcuk them.

A well known coffee and muffin shop in Dun Laoghaire was still issuing receipts showing VAT being charged at 13.5% this morning.

Peanut

Marks & Spencers cafes had brought this in before 1st July and were promoting it on the receipts and in the cafe.

femur61

Stayed in ahotel in cork last night and was charged the new VAT

Aard

Did they give a comparison of the previous price versus the new price? I imagine it would have been at least rounded up to the nearest euro?

Manach

One local cafe had a sign saying it was charging the new rate.

femur61

Aard wrote: »

Did they give a comparison of the previous price versus the new price? I imagine it would have been at least rounded up to the nearest euro?

If your refereing to my hotel stay, yes, i booked ages ago and have the old booking and the new price. But no price decrease in their food bill though to come to think of it.

tails_naf

I don't know if this idea has been floated before - but if the govt were serious about getting tourism going they would subsidize flights

Say if a person was spending at least 2 weeks in Ireland (by their flight itinerary), or was coming in long-haul (e.g. from the US), then the govt could take 100 euro off the flight as a 'rebate'.

Imagine flights from most of europe being free, or from the us going from 600 usd to 450usd (or better, if 100 was increased to 200) - I'd say there would be a sharp uptake in tourism. That rebate would be gotten back many times.

I know from experience, if flights are expensive, you are put off a trip right away. If the flights are ok, then the hotel costs may put you off - but if both are reasonable - you generally go for it.

The hotel costs are really good here now. The flights may still be putting people off - so lets change it!

Nijmegen

tails_naf wrote: »

I don't know if this idea has been floated before - but if the govt were serious about getting tourism going they would subsidize flights

Say if a person was spending at least 2 weeks in Ireland (by their flight itinerary), or was coming in long-haul (e.g. from the US), then the govt could take 100 euro off the flight as a 'rebate'.

Imagine flights from most of europe being free, or from the us going from 600 usd to 450usd (or better, if 100 was increased to 200) - I'd say there would be a sharp uptake in tourism. That rebate would be gotten back many times.

I know from experience, if flights are expensive, you are put off a trip right away. If the flights are ok, then the hotel costs may put you off - but if both are reasonable - you generally go for it.

The hotel costs are really good here now. The flights may still be putting people off - so lets change it!

The best example I've seen of this is to hand any people over a certain age (more likely to travel and spend) a few hundred euro, maybe €200, on arrival at the airport if they're staying over a certain period, say a week.

If done right, it would raise revenues.

tails_naf

Nijmegen wrote: »

The best example I've seen of this is to hand any people over a certain age (more likely to travel and spend) a few hundred euro, maybe €200, on arrival at the airport if they're staying over a certain period, say a week.

If done right, it would raise revenues.

Maybe - but those people at the airport were coming anyway.

There is a psychological block to booking a holiday you may spend 2-3k on in total, if the flights are 600 or 700, which is greatly lessened if they are 400. It's the people who are undecided about coming that are put off by the initial cost of getting here that we want to attract.

tails_naf

As luck would have it, I just saw there is a thread on pretty much the same thing in AH http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056316721.

Aard

I don't think it's the cost of flights that would stop people coming to Ireland. Those coming transatlantic would generally be prepared to pay; they know that "Europe" is expensive compared to the States, so an extra €100 off might only affect when they come rather than whether they come. The trick is to get repeat business. There was some tourism expert guy on TV a while back saying that while Fáilte and others do surveys on all sorts of things, they never ask tourists if they'd come back for another visit.

Some American friends of mine recently visited Dublin, and the thing they said that struck them most was, basically, the cost of food. When you think about it, it's pretty much the bulk of what you'll spend money on, after hotels (which I think are reasonable in Ireland, and their service is generally good). Restaurants now charge the 9% VAT on any food bought to be consumed on the premesis. OTOH, most takeaway / to-go food is entirely VAT free. This isn't exceptional, however something that is is that there's never any price-difference between eat-in and to-go. The only place I've seen it is in Fallon & Byrne. In Belgium, for example, there's often a lower price for takeaway, not to mention that the food is cheap to begin with. In France the VAT on restaurants (among others) was reduced a year or so ago to 5.5%.

Now I'm not saying to lower VAT in order to lower prices. As of now, of a €20 meal only €1.60 or so of it is VAT. That's not too bad. I guess Ireland is just an expensive place. Service in restaurants/cafes can be hit or miss. For example, Butler's Cafes are a great idea imo. They're Irish and they appeal to the tourist and native alike. But their customer service is s hit. They never say hello, even when I do, there's rarely a smile, and if there's a problem with your drink (often they give me a variation of what I ordered) then it's a big deal and a super eye-rolling opportunity. This isn't a government or tax problem, it's an industry problem. Anyway, I digress.

Oh, and excise duty on certain alcohols should be looked at.

n97 mini

n97 mini wrote: »

I don't think anyone in my local chipper speaks English, including the owner, so I doubt prices will be any different.

Just checked. Not one price any different. I doubt they know much about VAT.

Max Power1

Starbucks changed the prices down anyway

SHOVELLER

Anyone notice that the papers have now gone back pre vat prices?

Aard

4% inflation in a few months? Hmm...

ei.sdraob

well if you look at cso then it seems there was a small change



Anyways inflation of 2.6% :eek: ouch aren't some people paying less on trackers

padz

got a great midwk hotel deal lnite 2people 3course meal bed and bfast in a 4star for 99e just checked the print out there the tax is at 9%

Aard

Of course the tax is 9%. If it were still 13.5% it would be illegal. The point is that if it has always been €99, then the VAT reduction hasn't been passed on. If it has been passed on, that means that it used to cost just over €103 which is an unusual price for any kind of hotel offer. Chances are they didn't pass on the reduction, so no cause for major joy.


(Fake edit: more likely this is just a special offer that didn't exist a few months ago.)