VAT going up to 23%

I saw an article about the Vat rate going from 21% to 23% end of march. Is this the start of increasing taxation to pay for the pandemic? It hasn't got much media attention either maybe because most businesses are closed so will not affect them yet. Also a bit unusual to be doing it now long before budget, is it a way of sneaking this in now and maybe another increase at the budget. Also a way for government to claw back all those enforced savings when the pent up demand is finally released. Inflation is coming driven by government taxation.

joe sod said:

Also a bit unusual to be doing it now long before budget, is it a way of sneaking this in now and maybe another increase at the budget.

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25% is the highest VAT rate allowed under EU law so not much scope there.

joe sod said:

Also a bit unusual to be doing it now long before budget, is it a way of sneaking this in now and maybe another increase at the budget

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The normal VAT rate is 23%. There was a temporary reduction to 21% from 1st September. So this isn't news, it's always been planned.
A lot of businesses didn't pass on the reduction to consumers.

With negative interest rates paying for the pandemic, the government would grab as much debt as it could, seen as they are being paid to issue debt... the EU fund (€750 Billion) needs to make sure Italy or Greece doesn't get any worse though... can't see inflation going beyond 2% otherwise the EU funds wouldn't have been setup...