Retail Excellence calls for new tax measures in Budget 2019
Representative organisation Retail Excellence has published its recommendations to government ahead of Budget 2019, in which it calls for targeted solutions for retailers.
Print6 July 2018
Retail Excellence has published its recommendations to government ahead of Budget 2019, in which it calls for targeted solutions for retailers from the government. The threat that online retailing poses to all manner of traditional stores is ever-present and growing, with the online environment breaking boundaries everywhere.
To help defend existing businesses, Retail Ireland is seeking additional online supports and tax fairness measures that will protect retailers from the “onslaught” of cheap, non-European imports.
Retail Ireland’s Budget 2019 submission, titled Retail: Sustaining and Growing an Economy, also seeks a general cut in consumption taxes, a reduction in the cost of doing business, increased funding to get retailers online, increased infrastructural investment, Garda resources, town renewal funding, investment in the Home Renewal Scheme, introduction of measures to increase our competitiveness and improved access to finance.
Chief executive of Retail Excellence Lorraine Higgins said that Irish retail remains vulnerable, despite record employment numbers. “Traditionally, a booming economy would mean increased spend in retail outlets,” Higgins said, “but consumer habits have changed and we must react accordingly. This is precisely why Budget 2019 demands retail focused solutions.”
Retail Ireland states that one of the biggest threats facing bricks-and-mortar stores in Ireland is the glut of cheap, non-European imports being sought by Irish consumers through online shopping. “The prices of these goods and products are generally distorted,” said Higgins, “as many distance sellers are not registered for VAT in Ireland and therefore do not apply same or duties to the product price which leaves our retailers at a competitive disadvantage. Consequentially, this is a tax fairness issue.”
The group’s Budget 2019 submission outlines a suite of measures aimed at ensuring tax fairness for retailers. Retail Ireland recommends that online marketplaces are held jointly and severally liable for the collection of VAT and duties from distance sellers and that all online advertisers acquire an Irish VAT number.
Retail Excellence has also called for increased funding under the Digital Trading Online Voucher scheme, to enable more retailers get online and have called for support to help Irish retailers fulfil their export potential. Specifically, the group is seeking linguistic, logistic, network and market support in other jurisdictions akin to that which is afforded to manufacturing and processing companies.
“Our Budget 2019 submission seeks to provide a clear set of solutions,” Lorraine Higgins said, “which we feel are critical to ensure an upward economic and employment trajectory for the betterment of all of Ireland, both urban and rural.”
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