The fight against VAT goes on – and it is not just over Amazon Prime

The fight against VAT goes on – and it is not just over Amazon Prime

WE Islanders are no strangers to the quirks that make life in Jersey unique.

From the lack of bananas in the shops when the weather is bad to our easy pronunciation of the French place names and even the way we know St Malo and Gatwick Airport as if they are home, there are all sorts of ‘Jersey-isms’ that unite us.

But there’s another shared experience that most of us have encountered, a lot of us on a repeated basis – the fight against VAT.

A decade ago it was a hot topic and this newspaper even ran its own Fair Play campaign to get local retailers to remove the sales tax, which does not apply in Jersey, from their prices and proudly display a sign in their windows when they had.

But today, with internet giants like Amazon not only supplying so many goods but also automatically removing the VAT from millions of items, we’ve all calmed down a bit.

And thanks to a desire for more choice on our high street we have blindly accepted national chains charging national prices simply because we were thankful that we had more shops to choose from.

However, last month this newspaper launched a new mini campaign, this time to get Amazon to remove the VAT it currently charges on its Prime membership.

We are calling on readers to back the campaign to get VAT deducted from the subscriptions, which entitle members to free delivery and a range of other benefits, by signing an online petition.

The £7.99 subscription fee should, with the 20 per cent VAT removed, cost us Islanders £6.66 a month.

In the grand scheme of things the amount we are being overcharged is small, just a few pounds.

But that isn’t the point. It’s the principle that matters, and Amazon clearly knows that VAT is not applicable in Jersey and, we know from experience, has the systems in place to be able to remove it easily.

However, how can we expect the likes of Amazon to listen when we still let those operating on the ground in Jersey, and in some cases those owned by Channel Island companies, get away with it?

Last week I popped into Marks & Spencer in King Street to order a piece of furniture – a new drinks cabinet to house my (rather large) gin collection.

The cabinet in question is on offer online for 20 per cent cheaper and I’d naively assumed it meant I’d get it for that price.

‘No,’ said the sales assistant. ‘We don’t honour online sales’. ‘Okay,’ I replied, ‘but you’ll take off the VAT, right?’

The answer, which I already knew to be honest, was of course ‘no’.

M&S are not, of course, by any means the only ones doing this; my recent experience has just brought the company to my attention. And I am sure between us we Islanders have a catalogue of examples of cases in which we have wrongly been charged VAT.

Now, I’ve heard all the arguments from retailers before, including the one about the stretch of water between the UK and Jersey being the most expensive in the world and so on and so forth.

But when John Lewis can send me a fridge freezer that’s on sale with no delivery charge and the VAT removed, why can’t our local M&S honour the sale price of a drinks cabinet, even keeping the VAT that I shouldn’t really have to pay but would have done?

A fairer solution if they really cannot honour online prices would be to just remove the VAT full stop.

This is just one example of a problem which is being unfairly allowed to persist, often unchecked.

And perhaps it is no surprise, therefore, that the M&S home store has recently closed, with the furniture now occupying a small part of an upstairs corner of the main King Street shop.

None of what I am saying today is anything new, and that makes the issue even more frustrating.

We Islanders are effectively held to ransom in such circumstances, and just accept it for an easy life, and one in which we can have our gin bars or M&S luxury mezze selections – as long as we are content to pay over the odds.

The States have toyed with the idea of starting a conversation with big retailers about this very issue in the past, but always chickened out.

And with the new retail tax on large companies there’s just another excuse for big businesses to moan that they couldn’t simply keep us all in the manner – and choice – we are accustomed to if they had to remove VAT as well.

But, just like with Amazon, it is a matter of principle, whether it is about saving a couple of quid or £200.

And it is going to take a lot more than me refusing to buy my drinks cabinet from the local shop to change things.

In the meantime, I’m off for a gin and tonic – duty free of course.

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