DVDs are about to get more expensive...

ayase

ayase

State Alchemist
With a lot of us being online DVD buyers, I thought this might make for interesting (if infuriating) reading:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15646470

So that's HMV online and Amazon's Indigo Starfish that I know of. There are probably several more that will suffer.

"Here's an idea, why don't we introduce legislation that will put people out of work, make consumer items more expensive and make it harder for British companies like HMV to compete in the global marketplace?"
"In the middle of a recession? Great idea!"
 
Channel Island VAT Loophole to close in April

From 1st April 2012, Low Value Consignment Relief will not apply to goods sent from the Channel Islands to the UK. Many companies use Channel Island warehouses to use this loophole to sell DVDs for cheap - companies like Play.com, Amazon and HMV - three of the biggest online retailers.

Source
 
lol I just posted this in the Anime News & Rumours section. D'oh!

But yeah...this is erm...not good news...not good at all.
 
Bad News all around

People could be lose jobs over this that's probably the worst part of it.

Also essential items that people really need like cheap contact lenses that low-income families can afford are going to be not worth buying.
 
*note to self - buy everything I want before April...*

Wait so it only applied to stuff under £15? Does that mean anything over, like vidjagaems will stay the same? I mean I know online generally isn't MUCH cheaper, but it's cheaper by enough. Also boxsets.
 
The government said the loophole was now costing £140m a year.

Hang on a second... how is it costing the gov money? Thats a cock up on the grammar front, it can't be costing them money - sure its losing them possible taxable money but its not costing them ¬__¬

The maximum price of the goods allowed under LVCR was cut from £18 to £15 on 1 November following an announcement in the Budget in March.

And so the figures delivered from japan and the such are about to start costing people serious money to get through parcel force.

Reading the comments in that link too, it just reaffirms why i hate this country for the idiots that we elect to be in charge, different coloured parties - same end result, just taking it in turns to bollock things up.
 
Tachi said:
Hang on a second... how is it costing the gov money? Thats a cock up on the grammar front, it can't be costing them money - sure its losing them possible taxable money but its not costing them ¬__¬
Click to expand...

It's the Opportunity cost, kinda, so yes actually it is costing them, in a weird way. What it means is, by not doing something the Government aren't getting money they 'should' be getting, and thus as they 'should' be getting it, not doing anything is 'costing' them.

It's (sort of) just like if you had a fuel leak in your car, it doing nothing isn't specifically costing you anything literally, but realistically we all know that the fuel is draining far faster, so not fixing the leak is 'costing' you money/fuel that you 'should' have [because there shouldn't be a leak].

That's a really sh*t way of explaining this, though. Someone who does/has done business please correct me...
 
ayase said:
So that's HMV online and Amazon's Indigo Starfish that I know of. There are probably several more that will suffer.
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Play.com and The Hut Group to name but two. We can expect to see less aggressive discounts from those and others.

The limit for outside the EU will remain at £15 so perhaps they'll all move to a European country which isn't part of the Union...
 
Yeah i get the gist of it spyro, but i'm just annoyed at the gov for this because its another screw up with grammar, technically its not costing them, its just losing them the opportunity to gain from it.

Or put another way:

To imply that it is costing them money would mean that they are having to pay something, which in fact they aren't actually paying anything, its just a waste of a opportunity to tax something.

@ Fab Loony, so greece in about a months time? :p


My advice to the gov would be to stop recklessly spending money on useless things (like bailing out other countries and sending aid money to other countries) get yourselves in check first then think about the rest of the world. If you want to cut costs then take it out of those areas, not public services and tax payers pockets, stop wrecking the private sector with red tape and B.S and generally just disband, i think things would be easier if we all just voted for things and had no gov.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
ayase said:
So that's HMV online and Amazon's Indigo Starfish that I know of. There are probably several more that will suffer.
Click to expand...
Play.com and The Hut Group to name but two. We can expect to see less aggressive discounts from those and others.

The limit for outside the EU will remain at £15 so perhaps they'll all move to a European country which isn't part of the Union...
Click to expand...

Blahdvd ship from Switzerland.
 
Go on companies, move to the EU and take the jobs with you to show the government who's the boss.

Seriously, that'll probably happen.
 
Maxon said:
Well ****. It was good while it lasted.

Joshawott said:
Go on companies, move to the EU and take the jobs with you to show the government who's the boss.
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Stop encouraging even higher unemployment rates.
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It'll inevitably happen; these big companies don't care about the unemployment in one country, they care about profits. They'll move to a country where they can still abuse it, and it'll be cheaper for them to hire a new work force.

As much as I want the unemployment rates to lower (I need a job damn it!), things like this only encourage retailers to get up and move.
 
Presumably the unemployment will mostly be happening in Jersey/Guernsey. It has long been obvious that the situation was unsustainable and completely slaughtering business on the UK mainland, so I'm sure most of the people involved won't be surprised. It doesn't affect me much (the £18 being reduced to £15 had much more impact) since I don't tend to buy UK products often for completely different reasons already.

Everything will just end up moving to another country and a new loophole will be born. I can't say I have a great deal of personal sympathy for the hit on the economy of the Channel Islands since it's overall a very wealthy and privileged place to live ^^;

R
 
These stores couldn't relocate to a country in the EU, like Ireland, because VAT would apply. Click me. The only thing they could do if they wanted to continue to exploit VAT loopholes is to relocate to a country NOT in the EU.

mangaman74 said:
Blahdvd ship from Switzerland.
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Interesting. I was half joking when I said all the Channel Island stores would up sticks, but there is a precedent.
 
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