Very bad news for fans of play.com and amazon!

Karl Hungus

Sorry if this has already been posted, but I couldn't find any thread relating to it.

According to this article, we mightn't have the great prices from www.play.com and www.amazon.co.uk for much longer. I for one simply don't buy from 'Real life' shops anymore since I started buying from said online stores. So you can imagine how annoyed I am at reading this!

Canny shoppers who buy low priced items such as CDs from online shops based outside the UK could soon find themselves paying more for the privilege.

Online retailers are in the government?s firing line for giving consumers cheaper deals because of a loophole in the VAT laws.

John Healey MP, the economic secretary to the treasury, told a parliamentary committee that this form of tax avoidance costs the country around £80 million a year in lost tax revenues.

The companies, which include Tesco and Play, are based in areas such as the Channel Islands, and ship goods to British addresses. If the goods are worth less than a total of £18, the shops do not have to pay VAT.

Since most DVDs and CDs are worth less than this, the companies can pass on the savings to consumers by charging less for the products they sell than shops based in the UK.

A spokesman for Tesco told Computeractive that the company set up an outlet in Jersey to give its customers greater choice, adding: "For the time being we want to give our customers the maximum amount of choice. If that means doing what other companies are doing offshore then that is what we will do."

Mr Healey however is not happy about the loophole and told the committee that while the practice is not illegal, it does constitute tax avoidance. He also said that the amount of money lost annually would increase to £200 million over the next few years.

Although no action is currently planned to rein in these retailers, the situation is under review according to the Treasury.

"Companies set up offshore for a number of reasons, but the government is committed to taking action against any enterprise set up artificially with the purpose of avoiding paying tax," a Treasury spokesman said.

Rabies

bastards.
I rarely buy cds or dvds in shops anymore.

ixoy

Scum. Like others I rarely buy DVDs from shops anymore, particularly anything new. I even had an argument with a friend last night when he was saying how dear DVDs were. The prices he listed were insane until I realised he was looking at HMV prices for which I severely berated him (they were, in some cases, 250% dearer than online prices I had seen).

On the "let's be optimistic side" here, it's:
1) A UK proposal. So they might only affect play.com merchandise sent to UK addresses

2) It shouldn't apply to items bought elsewhere, such as the US where the government can't interfere.

Ireland better not look into this. The government sucks enough money off us to feed the likes of the "jobs for life" crowd. Let's have some bargains open to us in this rip-off culture.

therecklessone

Fits off, amazon.co.uk will not be affected by this. They pay the relevant VAT (and charge Irish rates to Irish customers).

The central point of this appears to be the UK government attempting to close off a loophole that allows UK companies set up offshore operations to avoid paying tax. For it to affect Irish consumers, our government would have to go down a similar route.

For it to affect all online purchases, they would have to remove the exemption for packages of low value (€22) from VAT completely.

Sleepy

This could potentially topple the government if they were to try this. While I'm not her biggest fan, I can't see Mary Harney allowing them to pursue this given her vocal nature on rip-off Ireland and advising consumers to "shop around".

irlirishkev

I never buy cd's or dvd's in shops anymore either.. But having said that, a lot of the time, before I'll buy from somewhere like Play, or Amazon, I'll check on Ebay to see if I can get one second hand and/or cheaper..

Kevin.

samo

Having said that though, once one country wanted duty free gone it happened! Wouldnt surprise me one bit if Ireland went along with this is the EU wanted it to!

Töpher

Slutmonkey57b

There's a big fat difference between a politician complaining about rip-off ireland and advocating tax avoidance. There's no chance any government would allow joe soap to get away with getting something tax free - that's for large multinationals only. (see private eye)

Victor

OMG! Now we'll have to pay taxes!! :rolleyes:

Gone West

feck it. Just buy off the vietnam dvd shop. Wont mention the URL
I do, cost is $2 per dvd.

irlirishkev

FuzzyLogic wrote:

feck it. Just buy off the vietnam dvd shop. Wont mention the URL
I do, cost is $2 per dvd.

If that's the same one a mate of mine uses then no thanks..

You don't know what you're getting half the time. Bad quality bootlegs sometimes.. Subtitles on the screen, a timer in the corner.. one of them caused my dvd player to crash once. If you're into crappy cheap sh*t bootlegs, then that's the place to go..

K.

DMC

Sleepy wrote:

This could potentially topple the government if they were to try this. While I'm not her biggest fan, I can't see Mary Harney allowing them to pursue this given her vocal nature on rip-off Ireland and advising consumers to "shop around".

I'll keep that in mind for the next doctors appoinment.....
Meanwhile, shouldn't it be Mickey Martin?

Fallschirmjager

well i have a couple of things:

i recently priced tesco here with new releases (now i will be honest the have like 18 new releases) and i found then a couple of euro cheaper then play.

there is a raft of other sites offering this and you all know who they are. so as mary harney said -- shop around...altho i dont think she meant it this way!

to be honest play has (IMHO) quite expensive in recent times. they do appear to have changed direction in the last month or so as i expect cdwow was having an impact...

samo

Even cdwow.ie's prices have come down a little bit and are currently doingn 75c (Woo!) off for all members at the moment.

They were selling Collateral for €14.25 and had good deals on Bourne Supremacy etc which wasnt bad actually considering they are normally much more expensive compared to the uk/norwegain site and play etc

dearg_doom

while I do buy all my dvd's/games/music online, I never use the Irish/British versions of play/cdwow etc

they are quite expensive, I use cdwow.com.hk and the norwegian play sometimes

therecklessone

dearg_doom wrote:

while I do buy all my dvd's/games/music online, I never use the Irish/British versions of play/cdwow etc

they are quite expensive, I use cdwow.com.hk and the norwegian play sometimes

cdow.com currently charging £8.75 for most CDs, but allow you to pay in HK$129.3 (they also allow you pay in €)

cdwow.com.hk currently charging HK$131 for the same CDs.

Mossy Monk

isnt there something like this every year

the_syco

Here's the kicker; the main reason the price in the shops here are so dear, is that there's a flippin monopoly including them all!

Compare the price of a CD between here and the US or France. Big difference.

Its not the vat; its the flippin monopoly trying to close the doors.

WhiteWashMan

Slutmonkey57b wrote:

There's a big fat difference between a politician complaining about rip-off ireland and advocating tax avoidance.

nothing wrong with tax avoidence.

its tax evasion thats illegal.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Blisterman

Its more a cartel than a monopoly.

MorningStar

Amazon have been charging Irish taxes on goods for at least a year. EU regs had kicked in before that. I think Play have also been charging Irish tax too. They take off english taxes then put irish taxes on then convert it to Euro.

The Irish govenement are allowing companies to take profit out of our economy.

therecklessone

MorningStar wrote:

I think Play have also been charging Irish tax too. They take off english taxes then put irish taxes on then convert it to Euro.

Thats just their dodgy conversion rate, if you pay in £ stg you pay the price quoted on the site, nothing more.

0utshined

WhiteWashMan wrote:

nothing wrong with tax avoidence.

its tax evasion thats illegal.

and Tax Avoision is a bit of a grey area.