4 Jul 2023

And Then, A Thought...

   Looking at the title of this post it would imply that I, the tapper, has been thinking. Please treat that with humour it deserves.
   Anyhoo, the ‘news’ is – as ever -  full of folk bemoaning the price of a food shop and the financial hurt this is inflicting on folk. This is also wrestling for first place with the price of fuelling our cars an’ such.
   Those two items came together and caused a clicking sensation in wot passes for my brain. I apologise in advance if wot’s below is so wide of the mark it’s way over there in the muck.
   Our betters wot rule over us have always made food Value Added Tax free, right? Think that through from transport from farm to processing plant to packaging to transportation to shop. All that transport and processing is powered by wot? Lekky, gas{?}, petrol and diesel thus I’m assuming each stage of preparing and getting food to the shops add a tad on their bills to the next stop to cover various power usage costs and the to-and-fro transporters all adding a tad to cover their fuel costs. Thus when you buy your food there’s obviously a tidy mark-up to cover the cost of all the stages of getting the stuff to the shelves with a goodly percentage of that being to cover the added cost of VAT on power and  transportation fuel.    Thus we’re told food is VAT fee. Really?

Quote;  Oscar Wilde.

“Rich bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others.”

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

All the transport companies can claim back the VAT that they pay when filling their vehicles or paying for their energy.

VAT is effectively only paid by the retail customer. Everybody else is registered for VAT and both charges it, and claims it back. That's not to say that VAT doesn't have a cost - the paperwork takes time which costs money - but it doesn't cost 20% of turnover.

Mac said...

Anonymous,
Thank you very big for putting me right on this post.
I'll offer my humble apologies to one and all in the next post.
Thank you.

Judd said...

Maybe not quite as simple as that.
All the individuals involved in the manufacture and distribution train will be paying tax, including VAT, on almost everything they need (apart from their own food) in order to house and get themselves to and from work, the extra pay they need in order to come out with a livable wage all adds to the cost of production and distribution for all of us.

If you think hard enough about the amount of taxes paid in all the stages of ones life you'd turn to hard drink.
You get taxed on your pay then taxed again on almost everything you buy with your net pay, in some cases like car fuel you pay tax twice over.

Mac said...

Judd,
I shudder at the thought of hidden taxes but cheer-up at the thought of strong drink...