i rather doubt they'll drop vat for alcohol

and the lower vat rates quoted there for france/spain/germany/italy are for meals out/hotel stays etc and exclude alcoholic drinks.

the low german rate of 7% is for restaurant/catering food but not alcoholic drinks. so the claim "20% extra in VAT for your pint" isn't true but the uk is harsh on the other sectors of the hospitality sector.

also, lowering VAT on hospitality would likely benefit most those that have lower overheads like fast food joints as opposed to labour intensive local pubs, the small restaurant, the family-run café and small independent hotels.

maybe a better lever would be to lower business rates and give 75% or even 100% rate relief to small independent pubs, cafés and restaurants below a rateable-value threshold, say £75k and taper it away above that. that helps the village pub, town cafe and family restaurant without giving the same help to the big chains that don't need it.

the back of a fag packet cost of this (according to AI) is likely thought to be between 2-3bn a year. so in answer to tricky's funding question

Higher tax on large online/warehouse retailers
£0.5bn–£1.5bn
(Politically attractive: shift burden from high-street venues to online giants)

Tighten reliefs/avoidance for large companies
£0.5bn–£2bn
(Depends on how aggressive the policy is).

Small alcohol duty adjustment on off-trade alcohol
£0.5bn–£1bn
(Could help pubs versus supermarket alcohol, but politically sensitive).

so in summary give small independent hospitality firms rates relief and employer NI relief paid for by a rebalanced business-rates system that charges large online warehouses, distribution centres and big chains more fairly, plus tighter limits so relief does not leak to large hospitality groups.

Posted By: Tombs on June 2nd 2026 at 15:49:46

Message Thread

Vat petition to reduce to 10% from 20% (General Chat) - Mk_Canary, Jun 2, 14:47:50
- How about we knock off the increasingly standard 10% service charge and call it quits? (n/m) (General Chat) - CWC, Jun 2, 16:26:06
- Does the petition say which tax should go up to make up the lost revenue? (n/m) (General Chat) - Tricky Hawes, Jun 2, 15:22:13
  - Reducing expenditure now being a complete impossibility, obvs (n/m) (General Chat) - paulg, Jun 2, 16:30:23
    - Cut child benefit for people who don’t need it (General Chat) - jamesward, Jun 2, 17:49:57
    - Or indeed, does the petition say which bit of public spending we should cut (General Chat) - Tricky Hawes, Jun 2, 16:53:26
      - maybe ask Pat McFadden (n/m) (General Chat) - paulg, Jun 2, 17:08:06
        
        I don't think he's on here (n/m) (General Chat) - Tricky Hawes, Jun 2, 17:16:23
        
        we could just read his emails instead, I spose (n/m) (General Chat) - paulg, Jun 2, 17:22:18
- For hospitality i should add (n/m) (General Chat) - Mk_Canary, Jun 2, 14:48:43
  - i rather doubt they'll drop vat for alcohol (General Chat) - Tombs, Jun 2, 15:49:46
    - My plan is to have a tax free allowance on turnover for hospitality venues. (General Chat) - Augustus Pablo, Jun 2, 18:56:11
    - ^ Tombs for Chancellor and Minister for (waterborne) Transport ^ (n/m) (General Chat) - Knitted Jesus, Jun 2, 17:02:04
      - surely davey should get the water world gig? (General Chat) - paulg, Jun 2, 17:10:03

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