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From the Countryside Alliance newsletter.
This may well have been posted already. If so apologies for repetition.
3. Cut the VAT - Is your local MP supporting our campaign?
The Cut the VAT coalition has met with the Commissioner László Kovács (Taxation and Customs Union) to put our case for cutting VAT on all repair and maintenance work. Commissioner Kovács is a huge believer in the positive benefits of reduced VAT for building repair and maintenance work and is convinced that at the European Council meeting being held at the end of this week, that all 27 Heads of State and Government will be in political agreement to allow the reduced rate of VAT to be applied to all repair and maintenance work, under the European Recovery Plan. This would then be given final approval at the next Ecofin Council meeting in January.
This means that if all goes well this week and at the Ecofin Council meeting in January, it will be possible to apply permanent reduced rates of VAT to labour-intensive services, including the provision of services related to renovation, repair, transformation, maintenance and cleaning of housing and places of worship, cultural heritage and historic monuments. Most importantly this will come into force with immediate effect, meaning that as of January 2009 the UK Government could implement reduced rates of VAT for building repair and maintenance work whenever they wanted, just by making a ministerial announcement.
If all member states sign up to this opportunity to implement reduced VAT rates, the next stage of the battle is to get the UK Government to then implement the reduced rates.
How can you help?
As you may remember in the last session of Parliament the Coalition had an Early Day Motion (EDM) tabled by Bob Russell MP, calling on the Government to cut VAT from 17.5 per cent to five per cent for all building repair and maintenance work. When this EDM closed at the end of the last parliamentary session it had received the support of 104 MPs. Bob Russell MP has very kindly re-tabled the EDM and it is imperative that we get as many MPs as possible to support it to show the Government the strength of support for the reduction in VAT
Please write or email your local MP asking them to support EDM 7, including the reasons why they should support EDM 7. A list of reasons can be found on the Cut the Vat website http://www.cutthevat.co.uk
This may well have been posted already. If so apologies for repetition.
3. Cut the VAT - Is your local MP supporting our campaign?
The Cut the VAT coalition has met with the Commissioner László Kovács (Taxation and Customs Union) to put our case for cutting VAT on all repair and maintenance work. Commissioner Kovács is a huge believer in the positive benefits of reduced VAT for building repair and maintenance work and is convinced that at the European Council meeting being held at the end of this week, that all 27 Heads of State and Government will be in political agreement to allow the reduced rate of VAT to be applied to all repair and maintenance work, under the European Recovery Plan. This would then be given final approval at the next Ecofin Council meeting in January.
This means that if all goes well this week and at the Ecofin Council meeting in January, it will be possible to apply permanent reduced rates of VAT to labour-intensive services, including the provision of services related to renovation, repair, transformation, maintenance and cleaning of housing and places of worship, cultural heritage and historic monuments. Most importantly this will come into force with immediate effect, meaning that as of January 2009 the UK Government could implement reduced rates of VAT for building repair and maintenance work whenever they wanted, just by making a ministerial announcement.
If all member states sign up to this opportunity to implement reduced VAT rates, the next stage of the battle is to get the UK Government to then implement the reduced rates.
How can you help?
As you may remember in the last session of Parliament the Coalition had an Early Day Motion (EDM) tabled by Bob Russell MP, calling on the Government to cut VAT from 17.5 per cent to five per cent for all building repair and maintenance work. When this EDM closed at the end of the last parliamentary session it had received the support of 104 MPs. Bob Russell MP has very kindly re-tabled the EDM and it is imperative that we get as many MPs as possible to support it to show the Government the strength of support for the reduction in VAT
Please write or email your local MP asking them to support EDM 7, including the reasons why they should support EDM 7. A list of reasons can be found on the Cut the Vat website http://www.cutthevat.co.uk