Comments on: VAT Cut Implications for Ecommerce Sites in the UK

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:54:12 +0000

It really shouldn’t be a big deal for e-commerce sites to update their item prices. Hard-coding a tax rate is a silly idea in the first place…let’s hope not many of them adopted this approach! Banner images on the other hand will be time consuming.

If the VAT is going to fluctuate further in the future then businesses would be better off just advertising their product banners to say “£xx.xx + VAT”, like they do in the U.S. However, the U.S. does have a different tax rate in each State, making it more worthwhile.

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:11:26 +0000

Hi,

I think some people are having a fundamental misunderstanding here. You don’t save £2.50 for every £100 spent, you save £2.50 for every £117.50 spent.

It is a important difference as you cannot simply get the change implicated by reducing your prices by 2.5% – if you do that, you will be eating into your margin unecessarily.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:59:50 +0000

I changed the VAT rate on my website in about 2 minutes (and it didn’t cost me anything to do) . If your site is designed so badly it can’t change easily to things like this I suggest you get a better web designer. I designed my site myself so I guess other people aren’t as fortunate.

I agree the small change will probably make little difference to the econony. But Ecommerce is one industry that really should be flexible in situations like this. I can understand Bricks and Mortar businesses having trouble.

I can’t be bothered sorting out someone elses messy designs, but if you want a site that can move with the times without charging you extortionate rates, come see me!
(not spell checked)

Tom

By: VAT reduction will it cost more that it saves :: Blue Square

VAT reduction will it cost more that it saves :: Blue Square — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:44:56 +0000

[...] Original article from Blogstorm [...]

By: How will the VAT cut affect e-commerce?

How will the VAT cut affect e-commerce? — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:14:01 +0000

[...] intention is to stimulate consumer spending to help businesses but, as Patrick at Blogstorm points out, this could turn out to be a major problem for some online [...]

By: Hizza

Hizza — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:00:37 +0000

This VAT reduction is a nightmare for us in the e-commerce industry. We are already seeing a huge pick up from clients looking to upgrade their existing websites. The strain that's going to be put on the nightmare of implementing this outweighs any realy benefit. Solutions to the VAT reduction.

By: Marcus0019

Marcus0019 — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 20:16:29 +0000

It’s all just a great big smokescreen.
Any potential benefit to the consumer will be far outweighed by the costs of implementing this 2.5% shaving off the rate of VAT.
The knock effect of having to adjust all my regular incoming and outgoing invoices for 13 months before reverting to 17.5% is both unwelcome and ineffective.
This will in practical terms cost me (a small business) far more in admin than any possble saving – utter waste of time.
Poorly thought through peice.
I for one will be increasing my net pricing so that total ‘retail’ values are not affected.
Is that what yu wanted mr Chancellor?

By: Adrian D.

Adrian D. — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:54:11 +0000

Let me play devils advocate here…

The government reduces taxes and everyones complaining ?
My God, what would have happened if they increased it to 19.5% instead ?

Perhaps now would be a good time to have programmers set up tax rates as variables that can be pulled from an online database so that future changes only involve the changing of one variable in one location. A change in that variable would update the tax rate in all Banners and Adverts.

Its 2008 folks, its not like we dont have the technology to do this.

Tax rates change, its a fact of life, let them reduce it more – eliminate it even.

Adrian D.

By: Jonathan Saipe

Jonathan Saipe — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:30:30 +0000

As mentioned above, £2.50 saved for every £100 spent, or even £25 saved for every £1000 spent just doesn’t cut the mustard for me (and quite possibly a huge amount of the population). Admittedly I’m no economist so maybe I’m missing a trick or two, so I’m happy to be enlightened.

By: Allison

Allison — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:24:52 +0000

So much for helping SMS business’s Mr Darling, my website people are going to charge me £140 + vat (at a rate of 17.5%) for changes to the VAT rate, they also tell me that should there be any complications I will be charged extra for that! What were you thinking of….