News

WTA and its members' efforts pay off as UK Government backs down on VAT

Since George Osborne’s budgetary announcement, the WTA has objected to Holiday Statics being standard rated for VAT purposes due to the potential economic impact and the loss of jobs and business revenue.
So great news this morning as we hear that the Government is going to drop its plans to levy 20% VAT on the sale of static caravans and only charge 5% instead.. This comes on the back of WTA efforts over recent weeks to get our case heard from Wales, alongside our members from the Caravan and Camping sector.
Firstly, the WTA submitted a response from the industry to the consultation ‘VAT: Addressing borderline anomalies’ firmly rejecting the proposals where we strongly urged the government to re-consider. Then we recently saw a letter sent from the First Minister, Carwyn Jones AM direct to George Osborne in relation to the proposals to impose VAT on the sale of new static vans asking the Chancellor to reconsider.
On the 21st May we hosted a visit in Mid Wales by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales so that we could put our concerns on various issue, including the VAT proposal, direct to David Jones MP; this came on the back of a recent face to face meeting during Wales Tourism Week with Cheryl Gillan MP, Secretary  of State for Wales, who sits on the front bench.
It all adds up and proves that the effort is worth it…Okay, it is still an increase over no VAT at all, but is this the sign of things to come?  Let’s hope there is a drop in the near future of VAT to 5% for the rest of the tourism and hospitality industry! Rest assured, the WTA will continue to push on this as our overall goal, but we can only do it by working together.