Up in Scotland, as part of the SNP's mission of nannying fussbucketry and to raise a few quid, they have dreamed up something that has been dubbed; The Tesco Tax:
The Scottish Spending Review 2011, published yesterday, says that the business rates paid by large retailers who sell tobacco and alcohol products will be increased by a supplement from 1 April 2012.
It said: "The estimated income raised from this supplement will contribute to the decisive shift in the spending review to preventative spend measures to be taken forward by local authorities and their partners in NHS and Scottish government."
Apparently this will raise £110 million over three years - which is really going to solve Scotland's financial problems! Along with minimum pricing, this represents another unwarranted, judgemental attack on the lifestyle preferences of ordinary Scots. And, worse still, it's a tax that wont just be paid by the drunken Rab C Nesbits but by teetotal, god-fearing Presbyterians as well.
By raising the cost of doing business you raise the prices that that business charges - the tax won't be paid by Tesco but by Tesco's customers. All of them not just those who smoke and drink.
That wasn't what Mr Swinney planned I'm sure!
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3 comments:
Independence will be great.
Won't it....?
They never seem to grasp (or maybe they do and just don't care) that it's always the consumer, who's also generally a taxpayer, that winds up paying for these business taxes.
It perhaps is the plan. Al Concern are already using the idea that subsidies on alcohol are putting food prices up to infer that drinkers cost teetotallers money. With this tax in place, ASH can use the same argument for further attacks on those 'selfish' smokers.
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