The Written Podcast: £X.XX + VAT

This article is going to be a rant. A classic British rant, where I complain about something that’s probably not worthy of a rant, but gets one regardless. We British likes to rant about everything and anything – we are exceptional complainers. We find the mundane, which no one else considers as anything but, worthy to get ourselves angry over. If we don’t get red in the face over a little thing which only happens once every blue moon and pitch better ideas on how it should work, then can we really call ourselves British?

The title describes how some business gives you only the first part of a price, and you’re required to perform math to get what you’re really paying for. VAT (value added tax) is added onto everything we buy here in Britain. (Other countries also have this tax and call it by a different name.) Value Added Tax is, as of writing this article, 20%, which is an increase of 2.5% since 1994 – and I dare say it’ll increase later on in the future, despite people’s protests. That 20% goes to the Government. Billions of pounds from that tax alone goes to the Government. It’s a common misconception that the name of the tax specifically relates to what the government spends the money on – that’s not the case; the government can and does spend all collected money from every tax on whatever they want. Road Tax is only named such but we shouldn’t believe all our money we give under that name only goes to the roads of Britain – but instead gets spend on whatever they want. This goes for every single tax they’ve issued – including the TV license.

Some things are exempt from the 20% increase: Children’s car seats, and home energy services, which only get 5% tax increase. Most food and children’s clothes are completely exempt from all tax increase – although the British government recently introduced the sugar tax, which sits at a moderate £0.18p for all sugary drinks per 100ml. It must be noted, we fully expected full-fat Coke and Pepsi to have their prices rise, but we are a bit confused as to why Diet drinks which heavily promote not having an ounce sugar within. There may be some explanation, but I can’t find a decent one online, not even when trying to find some official sources – but that’s a rant for another time.

The fact we have VAT doesn’t aggravate me, no; but rather how it’s presented by business. Most online business gives all their prices having first calculated the 20% increase, but some online business and most off-line business give their prices without VAT, and expect us to calculate that increase.

To explain why I’m (certainly unnecessarily) angry, some business gives you only the price not including VAT. They say, “it’s £14.00 + VAT”. OK, so now I have to add 20%. No, just give me the price including VAT. Of course I’m going to pay the 20% extra; it’s not an optional extra, so just give me the full price. I don’t expect to do maths when purchasing my car parts. Just say the price is £16.80 and let me be on my way. At my place of work, I give the full price with VAT included, and people have gotten so used to being given only a part of the full price, they have to ask if the price I gave them is including VAT. I don’t want to give in and do what I dislike, but it’s an unnecessary question. Yes, the price I’ve given them is including VAT simply because you have to pay it; it’s not a choice you can opt out of if you don’t have enough in your wallet; I’m given you the full price because after you’ve done the maths, that’s exactly what you’ll be paying. I just can’t win.

And if you’re not that good at maths – you’ll have to get out the calculator to work out the full price, or wait for the employee to work it out after having to ask them. An entire conversation and a set of actions can be saved if people only but give the full price, not a partial.

I mean, they don’t do that for anything else. You don’t ask if a film is out and the shopkeeper says “yes, + the disk.” You’d think that’d be a strange answer. I didn't ask for just the case, I asked for the whole package just as I didn't ask for part of the price, but as strange as it may seem I asked for the whole price. You don’t go to a car dealership and ask if the new car range has released and the sales adviser says, “yes, + the wheels.” You’d probably be inclined to ask for them elaborate on what the heck they meant by that. Are wheels an optional extra – no, of course the car comes with wheels so why not just say yes, the car is out. Just give us the total price, not a math test. I’m not an accountant – I’m someone who just wants to buy something – how hard can it be?

The only place where it is acceptable and should only be the place where people can say “+ something,” is at a café or restaurant. You ask, “do you have the burger?” and they say, “yes, + chips.” Except, the chips are actually an optional extra you’re not forced to take, unlike VAT.

In some situations, you do have to give the price without VAT, but usually - I've noticed - whoever is asking specifically requests that, otherwise they are expecting the full price. In trade business, they do have two separate prices - one with and the other without VAT added - due to the other business who do buy from them normally have certain discounts here and there of certain values depending on what's brought and how much, and so the baseline price without VAT is required to calculate the specific prices these other companies will be paying. That's understandable and acceptable, but even then they're not expecting the prices to be given to them in chunks, but instead the full value after the calculations have been made - not "£14 + 15% discount instead of the usual 20% VAT the general public pays". I just can't quite get my head around why some business would only give you part of a price plus a math lesson. If I have to do a math lesson, I expect the time it takes me to work out the full price to be converted into the percentage I then want taken off the full price, yes that's including VAT.

And that concludes my classic British rant. I am of course only writing this to get it off my chest. I’m not expecting miracles, nothing’s going to happen now I’ve expressed my opinion. How weird would it be if I woke up the next morning and Britain collectively felt inspired to change the way they state the prices of products? Very weird indeed, probably. No, this is just a rant about the mundane and what most people would state is pointless to even be angry about, which they’re right, which also means they don’t truly know what it is like to be British unless they’ve had a good classic rant about nothing. Once they’ve let it out of their system, they’ll understand and apologise to me for complaining about nothing… what am I even saying?

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)