Latest! UK online sales tax will be postponed for 6 months

According to foreign media reports, the British government plans to postpone the final decision on the UK online sales tax until the fall of 2021, a delay of about 6 months.

British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is understood to be waiting for US President Joe Biden and his government to reveal whether they will support an overhaul of global digital tax rules led by the OECD.

There had been much speculation that an online sales tax, or "Amazon tax", would be announced in the Spring Budget earlier this month, but with no mention of the proposed levy, retailers are left waiting.

Some reports indicate that online sales tax may be levied at 2% on every online order . However, this tax rate is only a preliminary guess and the specific tax rate still needs to be announced by the UK government.

It is reported that the controversial tax is aimed at putting the UK's physical retailers on a level playing field with large online retailers.

Since online retailers do not have to worry about high costs such as rent, business rates are unfair to physical stores. Some retailers said: "The coronavirus has had a significant impact on the way businesses do business, and the government needs to take immediate action to reform business rates."

Currently, British retailers are almost unanimous in their support for the government to quickly reform business rates, but few believe that an online sales tax can really balance competition between physical retailers and online retailers.

Many have warned that this could not only hurt some bricks-and-mortar retailers with large online businesses, but would also hinder the growth of independent retailers at a time when the UK economy is in deep deadlock.

It is reported that throughout the pandemic, many British retailers have maintained operations and transformed their development methods by increasing their online business to provide people with the products they need during the lockdown. The implementation of online sales tax will undermine the efforts made by retailers during the epidemic.

Tom Ironside, director of business and regulation at the British Retail Consortium ( BRC), said: “Imposing restrictions on the sale or delivery of goods online would simply place another burden on an already over-taxed retail sector. This would ultimately be reflected in higher prices for retailers, hitting consumer spending.

U.K.

Online Sales Tax

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