The Chancellor announced that the Budget will be held on October 30th 2024.

The Treasury has launched its Autumn Budget representation portal where individuals, organisations and Members of Parliament can submit comments on existing policy for consideration in the Budget.

This is your first formal opportunity to ask the government to bring back tax-free shopping as a growth measure and to raise over £4bn annually for the Exchequer.

You can access the portal here https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/AutumnBudget24/ where you will see the Treasury’s guidelines for submission.

The portal will close at 23:59 on Tuesday 10 September 2024.

Submissions should be short, only one or two pages. The portal will ask you to give details of your submission, including a 250-word summary, before uploading your submission.  On question 6 we suggest you tick VAT and Growth.

Please leverage your business or organisation’s experience to make your case for the Government to restore tax-free shopping.

Submissions with data receive more attention from the Treasury. Please do share if possible.

As a guide, AIR’s key points are:

  • The Government has made economic growth its main priority.
  • In her speech, the Chancellor has identified a £22bn hole in the public finances which she needs to fill.
  • The international visitor sector is growing fast and has the potential to help the Chancellor raise substantial additional tax revenue.
  • The previous Government’s decision to end tax-free shopping rather than extend it to EU visitors has put Britain at a competitive disadvantage, making us the only major European country not to offer tax-free shopping to non-EU visitors.
  • AIR’s evidence shows that ending tax-free shopping is costing British businesses over £1.5bn annually in lost sales.
  • But in addition, by giving up the opportunity to become the only major European country where the 450m EU residents can shop tax-free, AIR estimates that the previous Government threw away a £10bn new market which would generate an additional £4bn in tax revenues annually.
  • The decisions were made on Treasury cost forecasts which were never certified by the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) and which all the evidence is now proving to be significantly wrong.
  • The Chancellor should actively consider restoring tax-free shopping, starting with an announcement in the Budget that she will review the last Government’s now discredited costing estimates.

You can read AIR's short letter to the Chancellor, printed recently in the Times, and AIR’s full briefing to Rachel Reeves here.

Please make an effort to make a submission. It is unlikely that tax-free shopping will appear in this first Budget but the submissions will add to the longer-term campaign activities. You can contact AIR at paul@internationalretail.co.uk if you have any questions. 

Please let AIR know when you have made one so that we can monitor the numbers.

In addition to your formal budget submission, please also consider adding your name to the open letter to the Chancellor from businesses. This is being organised by Julia Carrick and James Chapman.  Contact Julia@juliacarrickluxury.com for more details.
 

Many thanks.

Best wishes,

Paul