Waterford retailers are going to be hit very hard, vat rise in budget.

ex_infantry man

its goin to be the death of our economy!!!!!

decies

mike65 wrote: »

Waterford is at least a long way from the border so its protected to a degree.

Not really mike my god if there was medals handed out to Waterford people for not supporting their own we would be on the podium for a medal!!!!

merlante

decies wrote: »

Not really mike my god if there was medals handed out to Waterford people for not supporting their own we would be on the podium for a medal!!!!

Too right, JJ Kavanagh will be doing direct buses to Newry and they'll all be full. The main entertainment will actually be the 6 hours on a coach bitching about how bad the shopping is in Waterford.

dayshah

abouttobebanned wrote: »

Well for one you can say goodbye to all the cheap drink deals in the pubs. They'll creep up in the shopping centres and off licences as well.

In fairness, 2% on €2 would only bring it to €2.04; but if they increase VAT I'd be very surprised they don't raise excise duty and so on too. Still, €2.50 could become the new bottom, rather than €2, which is still fairly cheap.

Finnbar01 wrote: »

How would you sort out this mess? Tax increases all the way?

Mainly. There are to be some saving from Croke Park, but mainly tax increases, and government investment in infrastructure.

That said, I wouldn't increase VAT.

daenerysstormborn3

LLU wrote: »

why is this in the Waterford forum? Are other retailers not going to get affected besides Waterford ones? Is the VAT increase only in Waterford?

Because this is the Waterford forum and Waterford people are discussing the effect the increased VAT rate will have on an already seriously suffering part of the country.

I'd say the Ferrybank Shopping Centre could get put on the long finger again because of this.

As another poster has said, the only positive thing is that Waterford is so far from the border.

This is going to be a disaster for the town.

WLR was on in the car earlier and there was an ad (I'd say it's a campaign they're running at the moment) from a local person employed within the town encouraging people to shop locally. As much as I'd love to I do not make enough money to do all my shopping locally.

kryogen

At the turning on of the christmas lights our wonderful mayor urged us all to be selfish this year and do all our shopping in waterford..... Gonna be plenty of that from now till the new year.....

Odats

Budgets are tight and people will go where the cheapest price is. Supporting your own within reason is logical but no one will be put up with being ripped off.

The governments hands are tied with the ECB and IMF and unfortunately this budget is being dictated from Brussels not Leinster house and they are looking for the quickest return.

wmpdd3

It is a blessing that we are so far away from the border. You have to add €60 for petrol onto any trip to Newry etc. But it will hit chains that also trade in NI.

There's already rumored uncertainty about the large supermarkets in Dundalk and Donegal, I could see closures there. Last time these store were under threat, a major chain reduced their prices and sourced their products in GB, this wont be happening again, they'll just close.

Sully

Well, I think its safe to say that while this is old news - I am stunned that the hike isn't gradual and is being hiked up with very little warning. This was agreed under Fianna Fail, but was supposed to be spread out over the next few years. I actually forgot about it until it raised its head in the past few days. Perhaps the government and their advisers have a better outlook on things, but I cant see it working.

Yes, we spend a lot of money. I think its being curtailed and slowed down, big time, with the recession. But is now the right time to hike up consumer prices on product when consumers have **** all money? This idea might work if had a lot of money and a hike wouldn't hit our pockets that hard, but enough to slow us down.

Our wage packet and take home pay, minus our expenses, is very little. Hiking up prices will hamper businesses, who will either have to drop the price or absorb it if they are to try keep afloat. That alone will lead to cutting jobs to make up the saving. Then, if with all these cuts in the budget and the VAT hike will further empty our pockets - it means us consumers wont have enough money to spread around. That could then end up having a direct impact on businesses again, who will see consumer spending down and will have to cut staff back.

I don't understand why it has to be hiked up so sharply and at such a bad time. Its not making any sense. I'm not comfortable with it going up at all, prices in Ireland are far to high as it is and this just makes it worse.

Remember when the previous government increased VAT, and they lost a huge amount of money? Oddly, they decided to still implement it as part of the plan with the EU/IMF and even more oddly, Fine Gael and Labour are implementing it even quicker when there seems to be room to move on it. The EU/IMF seem to be flexible, as long as the figures are met.

Psychedelic

I think the VAT rate was due to be increased by 1% in 2013 and another 1% in 2014 as part of the EU/IMF bailout terms. I assume the government are doing it all in one go now to try raise money as part of their €3.5bn cuts instead of raising that money through other cuts/taxes.

And by doing the 2% increase in 2012 and assuming they hold that rate for the following 2 years then they are going to be taking out a lot more out of the economy than if they increased it by 1% in 2013 and 2014.

wellboytoo

You think this is bad, I remember when the high rate of VAT was 35%!!! the black economy was rampant, maybe we should have an historian setting the budget , if you know where you are coming from you may be able to plan the future?

alphasounds

This is putting really the breaks on, i get dizzy thinking about it.
Free market ? I would like to know is the real point just greed of a few,
or something a bit more intelligent behind this Orchestration of pressure.
How about a levy for over 100k state pensioners ?

old gregg

happy to shop local regardless of vat rate, happy also to boycott the local shops that treated the good times as an opportunity to rob the locals.

Smiley Burnett

dayshah wrote: »

I think its a stupid decision to raise VAT, I'd much prefer raise income tax or capital gains tax.

But I'm curious who will pass it on, and compare it to who reduced prices during the summer when VAT was reduced on some things.

You want income tax rises???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How did that work for us in the 1980's???