Excluding VAT.............WTF?

[mr henderson]

If there is one thing I detest (actually there are quite a lot of things I detest) but in the top ten would be this ridiculous habit some advertisers have of quoting prices "excluding VAT".

What's that all about? Why do they do it? More to the point, why are they allowed to do it? It should be made illegal, promptly.

Ebay have done their bit towards stamping out this idiotic practice, it's time the government followed suit.

[dogwood]

I agree, especially when you don't know know its ex VAT...


David

[HandyAndy]

i too don,t like seeing "Ex vat",

but i read somewhere a long time ago that it is allowed for reasons of export orders, i don,t know the ins & out of why but thats something to do with it i believe.

andy

[Bonzo]

My local motor factors confuse the hell out of me

One will quote an inclusive price & the other will quote + VAT, sometimes it's the other way arround

I doubt the government will stop this practice. They like to keep our minds on other things.............That way, we forget, just how inept they are

[jasongray5]

Some of us are able to claim VAT back for nearly anything with some clever accounting, so I suppose it gives the price that we are actualy paying.
Most things that exclude VAT are items that are going to be sold on by a retailer, or bought by a buisness?? Think thats why its done
It is quite usefull for some things, but then others there is just no need

[mr henderson]

There will indeed be many things that are priced 'plus VAT' that are going to be sold on, but equally many retailers are doing it purely in a misguided attempt to make their prices look better.

Virtually everything that is being sold by the sort of suppliers that we on this forum are interested in are not going to be sold on, and even if the buyers happened to be VAT registered they still couldn't, or shouldn't reclaim the VAT because the goods are for their own use.

It aall about trying to make the prices look better. Funny thing, the bigger the firm the less likely they are to do it. When MK first started they were plus VAT, but when they grew they dropped the practice.

The easy thing for any firm that reckoned they had a lot of overseas customers (remember, the EC doesn't count, they have to pay the VAT) would be to quote BOTH prices.

[flyerncle]

Easy answer,We are English just bend over and let everyone shaft us, we love to stand in line and take all the crap thrown at us and just moan and accept it.

Make petrol £5 a liter we will still buy it, its time we stopped kissing every moaners backside and fight for ourselves and not someone elses wars.

[RAYLEE29]

I must say i do agree with you john,
Got the latest demon tweaks motorsport catalogue and checked the abismall prices of stuff in there and then took 5 mins to find out you have to add vat
its disgusting
quote the price you have to pay dont add things on later
the majority of us arent vat registered so make the catalogues inc vat
Ray

[shadowcaster]

Originally Posted by flyerncle

Easy answer,We are English just bend over and let everyone shaft us, we love to stand in line and take all the crap thrown at us and just moan and accept it.

Make petrol £5 a liter we will still buy it, its time we stopped kissing every moaners backside and fight for ourselves and not someone elses wars.

Hear Hear, however just what do we fight for and how do we do it.

[mr henderson]

Originally Posted by flyerncle

Easy answer,We are English just bend over and let everyone shaft us, we love to stand in line and take all the crap thrown at us and just moan and accept it.

Make petrol £5 a liter we will still buy it, its time we stopped kissing every moaners backside and fight for ourselves and not someone elses wars.

That seems more like an anti-government rant, where as I'm complaingin about the antics of various, mostly small, companies.

That petrol price thing that you raise, though, I'm not too sure about that. It seems to me that the price is based on the cost of oil, and tax. Personally I think that if tax has to be raised, which I guess it does, even though a lot of it is going to be wasted, then taxing something like petrol where the more you use, the more you pay, doesn't seem to be unreasonable.