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#TakeVAT lands at Heathrow

Dorothy Perkins | 12.02.2011 13:08 | Public sector cuts

#TakeVAT activists met up at Green Park before heading off for Heathrow's Terminal 3 on the Picadilly Line. Fun and games followed, with press being told that they can't film and protestors being told that they would be arrested for aggravated tresspass if they didn't leave the teminal.

Where to go
Where to go

What to collect
What to collect

Outside Terminal 3 Heathrow
Outside Terminal 3 Heathrow


Latest reports say they are outside Terminal 3, having been chased through the short stay car park by police, and police are offering to escort them to the boundaries of the airport.

Dorothy Perkins
- Homepage: http://london.indymedia.org/tumbles/promoted

Comments

Hide the following 15 comments

Question ?

12.02.2011 15:57

Vat registered businesses do not pay vat, consumers do.
So is there no VAT on airline tickets?

Sorry I don't know because I don't take airlines, there not safe!
(and bad for the environment)

anon

Is this a joke?

12.02.2011 16:36

Yes, the author and their co-horts don't really understand how VAT works....

If you are VAT registered, then you have to add 20% to the price of any goods or services you sell. Every quarter, you then give this money to the government. Basically, the companies are "tax-collectors" on behalf of the government.

Companies who deal in VAT-exempt services such as flights or cakes simply don't charge the customer VAT in the first place! They arn't dodging anything, its the customer who isn't paying the tax, not the business.

Of course, you seem to also forget that customers pay airport taxes and huge taxes on fights already (they just arnt called VAT). The last flights i had over half the cost was just tax.

anon

Spot on

12.02.2011 17:43

So if George Osborne announces that he is going to apply VAT on airline tickets presumably these protesters would welcome the move.

And if he forced those of us who have bought items from the Channel islands, this avoiding VAT, to pay an extra 20%, they would also congratulate him.

Paul

Make air travel VAT exempt

12.02.2011 19:29

The trick here is to make air transport exempt form VAT rather than zero rated.
This stops the airlines reclaiming their input tax, whilst not adding any output tax which would simply be reclaimed by businesses

tax_trickery

its doable

12.02.2011 20:55

>> The trick here is to make air transport exempt form VAT rather than zero rated.
This stops the airlines reclaiming their input tax, whilst not adding any output tax which would simply be reclaimed by businesse

The businesses would just pass the extra costs onto the consumers....
One solution would be to make them pay normal VAT, but reduce flight tax by an equivilent amount. That way, they'd be paying their VAT (keeping the protestors happy) but the overall tax amounts would equate to the same amount (keeping the consumers happy).

Win-win situation

ed

Spin

12.02.2011 21:00

Whichever way you try to spin it, it won't be the airlines [most of which lose money anyway] which will end up paying, it'll be the customers. Put a tax on aviation, and it'll promptly be shifted straight onto ticket prices.

not richard murphy

And so?

12.02.2011 21:17

Can someone explain what the point of this protest was?

Paul

Ok, I've got it now!

12.02.2011 21:24

Make it VAT exempt not zero rated.
But if you charged VAT on airline tickets which are already heavily taxed, you'd be taxing tax!
What ever next? Charge VAT on road fuel? The people would never stand for it.

anon

zero rated

12.02.2011 21:49

By the way, I hope you also picketed WH Smith, since books, magazines and newspapers are all zero rated. Penguin books! Tax avoiders!

not richard murphy

tax is tax whatever the name

12.02.2011 22:41

Should protest McVities as well, they don't pay VAT on Jaffa cakes.

It seems most people with two brain cells realise that if the airlines costs were raised by having to pay their vat on supplies, then it would get passed straight to the ticket holders.

So thats what these protestors really want - to tax the ordinary customer more. Completely pointless as they would just reduce ADP if the airlines struggled to survive due to loss in sales.

Can anyone actually make sense of this protest?


mollycock

Moreover...

13.02.2011 06:46

VAT hits consumers more than it dies businesses. If the tax on airline tickets was VAT then any busiuness person who was flying could claim that portion back as well as setting the rest against tax - making business air travel that much more cheaper.

Is that really what TakeVAT wants?

Paul

It's a sneaky anti aviation protest

13.02.2011 15:10

Just jumping on the current wave of tax avoidance anger - get your own protesters!

Sneaky

I don't think airline tickets are taxed by the government

13.02.2011 20:56

Most so-called "taxes" added to airline tickets aren't taxes from the government, they are just extra charges from airports and things. Airlines actually like these, because it enables them to have a cheap headline price and then blame the hidden extras on the government (when really it is just the industry itself).

Certainly aviation fuel is zero-taxed, unlike car fuel and fuel for heating your home. So poor pensioners are taxed for the fuel they use but rich execs flying round the world aren't.

Apparently the original reason for this is that in the early days of flying, the League of Nations (the precursor to the United Nations) wanted to encourage international travel so that cultures to learn about each other more and discourage outbreaks of war in the future.

anon

doubtful

13.02.2011 21:45

Most so-called "taxes" added to airline tickets aren't taxes from the government, they are just extra charges from airports and things. Airlines actually like these, because it enables them to have a cheap headline price and then blame the hidden extras on the government (when really it is just the industry itself).

I doubt it. But when i last flew to Canada, it was specifically outlined on the quote the amount of tax. I can't remember how much be it was over half. I doubt they'd get away with lying be stating things were tax when they weren't.

The funny thing was, there was a checkbox on the order page saying "would you like to offset your carbon usage against a tree planting scheme?". It was already ticked and cost £40.
I just unticked it and got the price £40 cheaper!! It says a lot about how many people must leave it ticked...... who knows where that money goes. If you are so bothered, then better giving the £40 to something where you know what is being done with the money.

>> Certainly aviation fuel is zero-taxed, unlike car fuel and fuel for heating your home. So poor pensioners are taxed for the fuel they use but rich execs flying round the world aren't.
Correction: We "ALL" get taxed on fuel. The poor pensioners get a winter fuel allowance to offset this.

>> Apparently the original reason for this is that in the early days of flying, the League of Nations (the precursor to the United Nations) wanted to encourage international travel so that cultures to learn about each other more and discourage outbreaks of war in the future.

Well i guess that didn't turn out as planned! multi-culturalism at its best.

anon

there is Air Passenger Duty but I think that is it

14.02.2011 22:58

Air travel has Air Passenger Duty imposed by the UK government but I think that is pretty much it:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Passenger_Duty

It is a per-person excise tax for leaving the country and increases depending how far you are flying.

anon