Commenting on today’s Tax Equality Day, which highlights the unfairness of Britain’s VAT system on pubs, BBPA Chief Executive Brigid Simmonds said:
“Today the pub industry is shining a light on just how unfair VAT is, for both pubs and the wider hospitality sector.
“If you buy a meal in a supermarket there is no VAT, but in the pub, you pay 20 per cent.
“Even a small drop in the VAT rate for eating out, to 15 per cent, would create 78,000 jobs, and would be a big boost for the economy.
“Lots of our competitor countries have taken action on VAT in the hospitality sector, and Britain should, too. When you add in business rates, and the huge rises we have seen in beer duty in the past decade, it all makes for an unsustainable tax burden on our pubs.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
David Wilson, Director of Public Affairs: 020 7627 9151/ 07557 436 033
Neil Williams, Head of Media: 020 7627 9156 / 07974 249 779
Notes to editors:
The British Beer & Pub Association is the leading body representing Britain’s brewers and pub companies. The Association is more than a century old and was originally founded as the Brewers’ Society in 1904. Our members account for some 90 per cent of beer brewed in Britain today, and own around 20,000 of the nation’s pubs.
Neil Williams
Head of Media
British Beer & Pub Association