Hairdressers lobby chancellor over VAT change
The hairdressing profession is expected to feel the pinch following new laws applied to labour intensive services
The president of the National Hairdressers Federation has pleaded with senior
members of parliament to recognise potential impacts from new legislation.
Harry Walker has written a series of open letters to chancellor Alistair
Darling, George Osborne, shadow chancellor of the Exchequer, and Vince Cable,
Liberal Democrat and shadow chancellor.
Walker has expressed concerns over the Small Business Act for Europe, which
includes proposals to increase the VAT exemption threshold to €100,000.
The Act also includes a proposal to offer member states the option to apply
reduced VAT rates for locally supplied services, including those of labour
intensive services.
According to Walker, this has the potential to cripple the hairdressing
profession, as there is minimal ways for a salon to offset the level of VAT paid
to HM Revenue and Customs.
‘I wrote to Alistair Darling in July asking whether he would seek to apply
the European proposals to our sector. The reply from his department seemingly
rejected this out of hand. We have again written to him urging him to reconsider
his position, a position which seems strangely at odds with the government’s
current declaration of support for small businesses to help them through this
unprecedented economic crisis,’ Walker said in one of the letters.
Further Reading:
EU
ministers divided over change to VAT directive
